Beautiful Virgin Islands

Thursday, Oct 02, 2025

Medical chief explains ‘community spread’

Medical chief explains ‘community spread’

Chief Medical Officer Dr. Ronald Georges wants the Virgin Islands to know what health officials mean when they talk about “community spread.”

And it’s not his definition: It’s the World Health Organisation’s.

“There are different categories when you’re looking at stages of an epidemic in a country,” he explained. “There can be one or two imported cases. And then you may have clusters of cases, and then you may have larger clusters, and then you have a case where the infection gets in the community and you cannot trace the origin. So when you get to that stage, that becomes community spread.”

According to the WHO, “Community transmission is evidenced by the inability to relate confirmed cases through chains of transmission for a large number of cases.”

Technical terms


In the midst of a pandemic, Dr. Georges said, technical terms surrounding transmission, testing and vaccines get thrown around, and it’s natural that the
public may be confused about what they mean. Knowing what does and doesn’t constitute “community spread” can help prevent panic the next time one or more cases arise, he added.

Last month, three cases were found in contacts of people who had attended a New Year’s Eve party on Virgin Gorda. But even though they became infected in the VI, the situation wouldn’t qualify as “community spread,” the CMO explained.

“If somebody got infected here in the BVI, it doesn’t mean you have community spread,” he said. “It means somebody got infected in the BVI. We’re definitely not in the same boat as the US. We’re not in the same boat
as St. Vincent and Barbados.”

Those Caribbean countries saw major spikes this month that sent active cases soaring from double digits to triple digits in St. Vincent and quadruple digits in Barbados.

“Even though in the last month you’ve had a large number of cases [in the VI], those cases are all contained. … And you didn’t hear anything exciting from the government; there was no shutdown. Every last one of them was traced and tracked and every one of them was put under control and they were of no risk
to anybody.”

‘We found nothing’


Furthermore, when health officials engage in mass testing, such as what occurred on Virgin Gorda and Tortola in the wakeof the New Year’s Eve cases, it doesn’t mean they expect to find massive numbers of cases.

It just means that because the VI is a small territory, officials are being cautious, according to Dr. Georges.

“We did not think there were any transmission links. But just to be overly cautious to make sure that nothing slipped out, we went and mopped up,” he said. “[We told] anybody who went to[those] parties to come and get tested, so that was kind of likea secondary thing we did. And we found nothing.”

Newsletter

Related Articles

Beautiful Virgin Islands
0:00
0:00
Close
Trump Administration Launches “TrumpRx” Plan to Enable Direct Drug Sales at Deep Discounts
Trump Announces Intention to Impose 100 Percent Tariff on Foreign-Made Films
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Singapore and Hong Kong Vie to Dominate Asia’s Rising Gold Trade
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Manhattan Sees Surge in Office-to-Housing Conversions, Highest Since 2008
Switzerland and U.S. Issue Joint Assurance Against Currency Manipulation
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Thomas Jacob Sanford Named as Suspect in Deadly Michigan Church Shooting and Arson
Russian Research Vessel 'Yantar' Tracked Mapping Europe’s Subsea Cables, Raising Security Alarms
New York Man Arrested After On-Air Confession to 2017 Parents’ Murders
U.S. Defense Chief Orders Sudden Summit of Hundreds of Generals and Admirals
Global Cruise Industry Posts Dramatic Comeback with 34.6 Million Passengers in 2024
Trump Claims FBI Planted 274 Agents at Capitol Riot, Citing Unverified Reports
India: Internet Suspended in Bareilly Amid Communal Clashes Between Muslims and Hindus
Supreme Court Extends Freeze on Nearly $5 Billion in U.S. Foreign Aid at Trump’s Request
Archaeologists Recover Statues and Temples from 2,000-Year-Old Sunken City off Alexandria
China Deploys 2,000 Workers to Spain to Build Major EV Battery Factory, Raising European Dependence
Speed Takes Over: How Drive-Through Coffee Chains Are Rewriting U.S. Coffee Culture
U.S. Demands Brussels Scrutinize Digital Rules to Prevent Bias Against American Tech
Ringo Starr Champions Enduring Beatles Legacy While Debuting Las Vegas Art Show
Private Equity’s Fundraising Surge Triggers Concern of European Market Shake-Out
Colombian President Petro Vows to Mobilize Volunteers for Gaza and Joins List of Fighters
FBI Removes Agents Who Kneeled at 2020 Protest, Citing Breach of Professional Conduct
Trump Alleges ‘Triple Sabotage’ at United Nations After Escalator and Teleprompter Failures
Shock in France: 5 Years in Prison for Former President Nicolas Sarkozy
Tokyo’s Jimbōchō Named World’s Coolest Neighbourhood for 2025
European Officials Fear Trump May Shift Blame for Ukraine War onto EU
BNP Paribas Abandons Ban on 'Controversial Weapons' Financing Amid Europe’s Defence Push
Typhoon Ragasa Leaves Trail of Destruction Across East Asia Before Making Landfall in China
The Personality Rights Challenge in India’s AI Era
Big Banks Rebuild in Hong Kong as Deal Volume Surges
Italy Considers Freezing Retirement Age at 67 to Avert Scheduled Hike
Italian City to Impose Tax on Visiting Dogs Starting in 2026
Arnault Denounces Proposed Wealth Tax as Threat to French Economy
Study Finds No Safe Level of Alcohol for Dementia Risk
Denmark Investigates Drone Incursion, Does Not Rule Out Russian Involvement
Lilly CEO Warns UK Is ‘Worst Country in Europe’ for Drug Prices, Pulls Back Investment
Nigel Farage Emerges as Central Force in British Politics with Reform UK Surge
Disney Reinstates ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’ after Six-Day Suspension over Charlie Kirk Comments
U.S. Prosecutors Move to Break Up Google’s Advertising Monopoly
Nvidia Pledges Up to $100 Billion Investment in OpenAI to Power Massive AI Data Center Build-Out
U.S. Signals ‘Large and Forceful’ Support for Argentina Amid Market Turmoil
Nvidia and Abu Dhabi’s TII Launch First AI-&-Robotics Lab in the Middle East
Vietnam Faces Up to $25 Billion Export Loss as U.S. Tariffs Bite
Europe Signals Stronger Support for Taiwan at Major Taipei Defence Show
Indonesia Court Upholds Military Law Amid Concerns Over Expanded Civilian Role
Larry Ellison, Michael Dell and Rupert Murdoch Join Trump-Backed Bid to Take Over TikTok
Trump and Musk Reunite Publicly for First Time Since Fallout at Kirk Memorial
Vietnam Closes 86 Million Untouched Bank Accounts Over Biometric ID Rules
×