One in 70 Bahamians caught COVID-19

Health authorities on the weekend reported an additional eight COVID-19 deaths in The Bahamas, on the heels of a press conference during which time officials painted a bleak picture of the COVID-19 situation, particularly on New Providence.

The Ministry of Health said a 64-year-old woman died on September 28.

A 66-year-old man died on October 1.

A 60-year-old woman died on October 10.

A 43-year-old man died on October 14.

A 48-year-old man died on October 15.

And the death of a 34-year-old man, which was under investigation, was confirmed to be COVID-19-related.

Those deaths were reported in the ministry’s October 17 COVID-19 update (released yesterday).

The other two deaths, both women, ages 74 and 61, were reported in the ministry’s October 16 COVID-19 update (released on Saturday).

All eight COVID-19 victims were residents of New Providence.

These brought the total confirmed deaths from COVID-19 to 122 as of Saturday.

There were also 13 deaths under investigation and 23 non-COVID-19-related deaths.

Officials also reported an additional 75 cases on Saturday: 61 on New Providence, nine on Grand Bahama, two on Andros, two on Eleuthera and one on Exuma.

To date, there have been 5,703 confirmed cases in The Bahamas. Of those cases, 2,245 are active and 109 are hospitalized.

Chief Medical Officer Dr. Pearl McMillan said on Friday one in 70 Bahamians has contracted COVID-19 since March.

This comes two weeks after she advised that one in every 100 Nassuvians was infected with COVID-19.

“New Providence remains the hotspot of the archipelago, accounting for 76.8 percent of all cases; a near-perfect mirror image of the population distribution,” McMillan said.

“New cases and deaths continue to be indicators the ministry monitors to determine [the] effectiveness of measures and to signal when a change in course might be warranted.

“The increase in restrictive measures implemented last Friday are not yet manifesting results. It will take time to see a decrease in new cases, a decrease in hospitalizations, a decrease in deaths and downward change in the trends.”

She said 627 cases had been reported over the last week as of Friday.

McMillan said that represented a 12.6 percent increase in cases during that period.

New Providence and Abaco have experienced spikes in daily COVID cases in recent weeks.

McMillan said it appears “some progress” is being made on Abaco.

“When we look at the number of days since the last confirmed COVID-19 case, islands that have gone on almost two incubation periods or more are Acklins, Mayaguana, Crooked Island, Long Island and Inagua,” she said.

“That would be the MICAL grouping. The last time we reported to you, Cat Island had gone 50 days with no case. This stretch, however, has been interrupted and Cat Island is now seeing new confirmed cases.

“Similarly, Berry Islands had gone 47 days without reporting any new cases. Berry Islands is now reporting 11 new cases in the last 72 hours.

“After 28 days of no new cases, Bimini recorded one case five days ago. What is maybe more concerning is that Andros, Eleuthera and Exuma are seeing new cases after having gone many days without cases. In the past seven days, Eleuthera has recorded seven new cases, Exuma one and Andros one.”

Health officials reported 186 new cases on Friday and Saturday.

“A sobering reality is that COVID-19 is claiming too many of our loved ones,” McMillan said.

“One in every 50 COVID-19 cases have died as a direct result of the virus. We have now registered COVID-19 deaths on eight of our islands.”

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