Speaking during a COVID-19 webcast on July 16, 2021, he said the Virgin Islands is no different from India, China and other countries like Italy, the US and the UK regarding its COVID infections.

Global trends playing out in VI - Dr Georges

Dr Georges said even though a large proportion of persons will have no symptoms or mild symptoms and then recover, others will suffer a more severe case of the virus.

He further went on to say that regarding risk factors for mortality rates surrounding the virus, the international evidence is being played out in the VI.

“Most of our cases are obese, some morbidly obese meaning very obese. Most of them have chronic diseases, most of them are diabetic, most of them are hypertensive, a few of them have chronic lung conditions,” he said.

Dr Georges indicated that based on this international evidence, people with the factors listed are at high risk for mortality as is the current case in the territory.

Self-care unless symptoms are severe

“What can we do at this stage? So we have 1,596 presently who are infected as active cases and you know some of them may begin to exhibit symptoms, some of them may require to be hospitalised,” he said.

Dr Georges said before the severe stage, persons who are experiencing symptoms of the virus, are being encouraged to stay at home and practice self-care.

“Once you get to a certain stage, we would really like you to call the health services for assistance. You can call the hotline at 852-7650,” he said.

“If you're having severe distress, it is important for you to call 911 and activate that system,” he detailed.

Vaccination has been effective - Dr Georges

The Acting Chief Medical Officer further reminded that the evidence worldwide for the last six months has shown that over 99.5% of all deaths worldwide have been in unvaccinated persons.

”So despite everything that we've been hearing, vaccination does prevent hospitalisation, severe COVID, ICU and death in a large proportion of persons,” he said.

There have been 14-COVID-19 related deaths in the Virgin Islands as of July 17, 2021.