Barbados Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley reports 45 new positive COVID-19 tests so far and climbing from a bus crawl on Boxing Day attended mostly by prison officers and Barbados Defence Force soldiers.

All 300 prison officers are being tested and 200 have been tested so far.

Last night 150 prison officers were placed in quarantine pending tests.

PM Mottley says she is prepared to make wearing masks mandatory by law if necessary.

The curfew start time has been brought forward from midnight to 9pm from Saturday, January 2, 2020.

All fetes, limes, banquets or gatherings of any number are now banned.

The airport remains open for the time being.

PM Mottley also ordered that three prison officers, Dave Best, Paul Outram, and Nigel Hall who cannot be located to contact authorities immediately and advised persons subject to testing and who do not have their own transportation to contact the authorities so as not to travel on public transport.