The Progressive Liberal Party’s (PLP) COVID-19 task force yesterday recommended that senior citizens and front line workers, including health care providers and salespersons, be prioritized for testing for the coronavirus.
The task force said, “Testing should be initially prioritized as follows: all health care workers and government employees on the front line, health care facilities for the elderly and nursing homes, all persons who have a fever and respiratory symptoms, all persons in quarantine, all shop servers and cashiers, all port workers and servers in the restaurant/hotel industry, transportation workers, [and] all persons expressing interest in being tested.”
It said The Bahamas must increase manpower and financial resources allocated for both molecular PCR and ideological testing.
“The initial goal should be to immediately sample one percent of the population or roughly 4,000 people gradually increasing the numbers tested to at least 40,000 persons (10 percent of the population),” the task force noted.
“This may seem ambitious, but is necessary if we wish to position ourselves to open the economy in the near future and truly know to understand the epidemiology of this highly contagious respiratory virus.”
It added, “If there is a shortage of quality molecular PCR or serological test kits, then we should contact the manufacturer directly and buy them even if we take a page out of the Cayman Islands’ book and hire an aircraft to go to the supplier and get them ourselves.”
The task force was formed last month.
With 72 confirmed cases of the virus in The Bahamas, the task force recommended the decentralization of COVID-19 lab testing in order “to increase the country’s testing capacity in New Providence”.
It said another lab should be established on Grand Bahama.
“We must enhance our contact tracing capacity and this team at the Department of Public Health must be beefed up to at least 250 persons in New Providence, 50 in Grand Bahama and 10 allocated for Bimini, Eleuthera, Abaco and Exuma,” it recommended.
“We recommend further that the government move towards the establishment of more well managed government-supervised quarantine/isolation facilities throughout the country.
“It is our view that the current process of self-quarantine and home isolation is not working and could increase the possibility of community spread particularly in situations where persons are housed in close quarters with others who may not have been otherwise exposed to the virus.”
Not long after the first case of COVID-19 was confirmed in the country, the government declared a state of emergency and ordered that all non-essential businesses close.
Hotel workers were among the first to be sent home. Thousands more have been laid off in the last few weeks.
Yesterday, the PLP’s task force noted that recent restrictions have had “a significant impact on the welfare of our citizens”.
“The swift and organized response from social services is therefore essential to aid in reducing the hardship faced by many families who are now without financial resources,” it said.
“The government must also find a way to provide a coordinated approach in disseminating information to the general public to prevent confusion and reduce unnecessary anxiety.
“To do this, the government must [work hand in hand with] business owners and local cellular networks to find more effective ways to deliver essential and supportive services.”
The post PLP task force for expanded COVID-19 testing, contact tracing appeared first on The Nassau Guardian.
source https://thenassauguardian.com/2020/04/24/plp-task-force-for-expanded-covid-19-testing-contact-tracing/
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