VIGILANCE!
WASHINGTON, DC, USA — Though losing one player to an adverse COVID-19 result, Dr Bersha Cole admits while there is always an element of risk, he remains comfortable that the medical staff is admirably managing these risks, given the resources available.
The local contingent of players and technical staff gathered at the Captain Horace Burrell Centre of Excellence on Tuesday evening and had COVID-19 tests on Friday morning.
A day later when the test results were revealed, one player, who had already left the island on Friday evening for London, returned a positive result. He has since been isolated and will return home when safe to do so. The other player who had travelled that route, will continue on to Saudi Arabia, as he was deemed low risk by the local health officials.
Meanwhile, the bulk of the local contingent travelled on Saturday afternoon to Miami for a layover, before continuing on yesterday to Washington, Dulles (IAD), via North Carolina.
Later yesterday evening they boarded a Saudi Arabian airline for the 11-hour, 40-minute journey to Jeddah, where they endured a four-hour layover, before journeying on to their final destination in Riyadh.
“There is always an element of risk that has been explained ever since the minister opened the airports. The thing is how do we manage it? Dr Cole told the Jamaica Observer just ahead of departure from Washington Dulles last evening.
“So I am comfortable as to how we are managing the risks considering the resources that we have,” he added.
The general physician at St Anns Bay Regional Hospital explained that as a medical group managing the Reggae Boyz programme they had always planned for such eventualities.
“We have always planned for this possibility, because in preparing for this trip we knew that it was always possible because in fact there is community spread and you have a lot of asymptomatic carriers, so what we do is just stay according to our protocols that we already have established, so whenever time any situation like this arises we proceed to immediate isolation, with a minimum period of two weeks and according to the local protocols they may be retested and then can be repatriated home.
“Or, if it is in Jamaica, it is two weeks and then the public health officials will decide whether or not they can be discharged, so [we] have already had measures in place to deal with any possibility such as this.”
Dr Cole explained that once this positive case was identified, the medical team invited the public health officials on board and they interviewed the people who would have been in close contact with the positive case, and after employing their criteria, they deemed the close contacts to be low risk.
“This was due to the fact that we have protocols which were there to help to reduce risks. So when they interviewed them they found out about the wearing of masks, whether or not physical distances were being maintained, sanitising of the area and all of those, and they were satisfied with the procedures that were in place, so they were deemed to be low risk and allowed to travel.”
It still can’t be business as usual though, according to Dr Cole, especially with the number of plane-hopping involved on this trip.
“But, of course, they are going to be under our supervision and we will be doing frequent temperature checks, constantly checking for symptoms and also physical examinations. If there is any hint of any adverse finding then we proceed according to the protocols and they would be placed in isolation.
“Also, the group will have three more PCR [ polymerase chain reaction] tests that we will be doing, so when you combine everything, it is low risk.”
The Phoenix Rising trio of Damion Lowe, Junior Flemmings and Kevon Lambert joined up with the delegation in Washington yesterday, for the flight into Saudi Arabia, where they will be met by those players journeying from Europe.
Upon arrival in Saudi Arabia, the group will face another round of tests before entering a mandatory 48-hour quarantine. At the end of that period, they will face yet another round of testing.
The Reggae Boyz will face the hosts on Saturday and again next Tuesday in their two international friendlies, their first since March and since the novel coronavirus pandemic.
They are using the games as preparation for next year’s Concacaf Gold Cup tournament and the World Cup qualifiers.
When the team last met just over three years ago in Jeddah, the home team won 5-2.