More than two dozen positive cases were discovered at the company last weekend.

Chad Emanuel, one of three directors at Yates, said in a radio interview on ZBVI this week that he became upset after Chief Medical Officer, Dr Ronald Georges said in a government media release that the workers were accommodated in ‘barrack-style quarters‘.

He said he was further upset by subsequent postings on Facebook that berated the accommodations of the workers; suggesting that the workers were all sharing quarters.

But Emanuel said these allegations were entirely false.

“This is completely not true. We have guys sharing rooms,” he acknowledged, “[but] each room has a bathroom, kitchen and some of them have double beds,” he said.

“So it’s nothing about barracks-style — one communal kitchen, one communal bathroom — that’s untrue.”

And while insisting that the workers living arrangements did not contribute to the situation, Emanuel expressed that he could not say what was the origin of the virus at the worksite.

He said it was not the workers’ fault that they came into contact with the virus.

Poor response from Health Ministry

He expressed further dismay at what he said was the Health Ministry’s response and the actions of the Environmental Health Department.

The director said no worker from the Ministry of Health came to assess his positive workers’ well-being. Instead officers from the Environmental Health Department came and carried out inspections of the quarters.

The director questioned the approach and said he didn’t feel this was the order of how things were supposed to be done.

“I think the first idea is saving lives and keeping people comfortable in a situation like this, not make them uncomfortable [with] people walking through their rooms checking to see how they live instead of checking to see their vitals to see how they’re doing,” he added.

Emanuel said he did not feel this was the way to deal with lives.

The director further said he sent an email to the Health Ministry expressing his disappointment that the entire workforce — comprising well in excess of 100 persons — had been quarantined for a 21-day period.

Background to the accusations

In explaining the background of the events, Emanuel said the situation had been ongoing from September 17 when an initial case was first discovered.

He said since then, he reached out to the Ministry of Health in hopes of being able to assist with the situation. Emanuel said it was the duty of the company to do its best to protect the Virgin Gorda community.