Case count nears 500

Thirty-seven new cases of COVID-19 were confirmed in The Bahamas yesterday, health officials reported.

Of the new cases, 32 were recorded on Grand Bahama and five on New Providence.

Notably, 16 people are now hospitalized, a 33 percent increase from the previous day, when 12 people were in hospital.

On Grand Bahama, the majority of the new cases are people under 40.

Twenty of the new cases on the island are women – ages 16, 34, 44, 45, 31, 50, 23, 45, 40, 30, 47, 35, 26, 20, 20, 14, 37, 63, 44 and 43.

Twelve are men – ages 57, 24, 23, 31, 42, 18, 48, 20, 22, 17, 50 and 40.

Grand Bahama has been dubbed a COVID-19 hotspot, recording 235 cases since July 8. The island is currently under a two-week lockdown in an effort to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus.

Of the new New Providence cases, two are women – ages 35 and 31; and three are men – ages 45, 38 and 43.

Health officials did not provide any travel history for the new cases. It is also unclear how many healthcare workers, if any, are among the confirmed cases.

In total, 484 cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed in The Bahamas – the second highest case count in the English-speaking Caribbean, after Jamaica, which has 855 confirmed cases.

Of the cases in The Bahamas, 380 have been recorded since July 8, a week after the country’s border reopened fully to international travel.

Grand Bahama has the most confirmed cases in the country with 243, followed by New Providence with 185 and Bimini with 21.

Guana Cay has recorded nine cases; Moore’s Island, nine; the Berry Islands, six; Cat Cay, four; Cat Island, three; Exuma, three; and Abaco, one.

The Nassau Guardian revealed yesterday that roughly 50 patients were potentially exposed to COVID-19 across three wards at Princess Margaret Hospital in the last week.

Bahamas Nurses Union (BNU) President Amancha Williams said between 24 and 50 nurses were exposed to COVID-19 on the wards, with some of the exposures starting as early as July 23.

The Public Hospitals Authority has yet to address the matter.

So far, 91 people have recovered from COVID-19 in The Bahamas and there are 380 active cases. Eleven people have died of COVID in The Bahamas.

As of last night, 4,143 tests were completed, according to health officials. These include tests conducted by private facilities.

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source https://thenassauguardian.com/2020/07/30/case-count-nears-500/