EyeWitness Coronavirus May 1, 2020 at 3:41 am Royston Jones Jr.
Health consultant says The Bahamas continues to make “significant progress”
Average cases per day drop by nearly half this week compared to last week NASSAU, BAHAMAS — While she said the elusive question of when the novel coronavirus pandemic will end in The Bahamas remain unknown, health experts have been encouraged by the “significant progress” made to date to flatten the curve of new cases in recent days.
“You have heard that we are making progress,” Dahl-Regis announced during a broadcasted press conference yesterday.
“We are often asked, when is this going to be over?” she continued.
“We don’t know. But based on the cases we had to date and the models, we are making significant progress if we keep to the number of new cases on a daily basis.
“We see very little deviation from that fit.”
There has been some respite of cases in recent days.
Two women tested positive for the virus on Sunday.
There were no new cases on Monday or Tuesday.
A new case was confirmed yesterday after a 29-year-old woman from New Providence tested positively for the virus.
This places the average number of cases between Sunday and Thursday at 1.3 per day, compared to the average of 2.4 cases per day between last week Sunday and last week Thursday.
Cumulative models presented yesterday show showed a flattening of the curve of new cases and deaths in the last week.
To date, there have been 11 COVID-19-related deaths.
The last two COVID-19-related deaths were recorded on April 23 after a 53-year-old and a 51-year-old, both of whom were men, died.
Twenty-five people had recovered as of yesterday.
The recovery period — from the onset of symptoms to being classified as recovered — ranges from five days to 34 days, according to data modeling.
Of the 81 confirmed cases, there have been 65 cases in New Providence, eight in Bimini, seven in Grand Bahama and one in Cat Cay.
Geo-mapping of cases and contact tracing in New Providence shows the majority of cases appear to be concentrated in central, eastern, and southern New Providence.
In Grand Bahama, cases and their contacts appear to be concentrated in Williams Town, Bahamas Terrace and Bahamia West; and in Alice Town and Bailey Town in Bimini.
To combat the spread of the virus, the country was placed under a public state or emergency, beginning on March 17.
A 24-hour curfew, weekend lockdowns and strict social distancing measures remain in place until May 30.
Health officials have said these measures, particularly the lockdown periods have yielded results and prevented additional cases that were projected.
West Grand Bahama and Bimini MP Pakesia Parker-Edgecombe called for a two-week lockdown on Bimini this week, as she expressed grave concern about Bimini emerging as a hotspot.
Asked about the proposed measure yesterday, Dahl-Regis said health officials were awaiting the results of 76 additional COVID-19 tests performed on the island over the past two days.
“Based on our findings and the number of contacts who are symptomatic or being affected by the cases we already have, that proposition will be brought to the Ministry of Health and to the government of The Bahamas,” Dahl-Regis said.
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