Recent surges happening on family islands – witness news

Health officials are expected to discuss lifting Maskman dating on Family Island with zero active cases.

The Bahamas, Nassau — New Providence continues to record the majority of coronavirus cases in this latest surge, which some health officials consider to be the fifth wave, but previously months. New infections are beginning to occur on some unaffected Family Island.

The Bahamas recorded an additional 33 positive cases on Tuesday.

Twenty-one of these were recorded in New Providence.

Seven more were recorded at Bimini and Cat Cays, two at Grand Bahama, one at Berry Islands, and one at Cat Island.

There was a pending location in the additional case.

Only 3 cases have traveled in the last 14 days, in contrast to the proportion of imported cases in recent weeks, which was close to 50% from late April to early May.

Hospitalization, an important indicator of the healthcare sector’s ability to cope with the surge, remained at 23.

There were no cases of severe illness being treated in the intensive care unit.

As of Tuesday, there were 933 active cases. An additional 72 cases have recovered.

Since the outbreak of the pandemic, there have been 35,132 cases.

Meanwhile, a total of 138 RT-PCR tests were performed on Tuesday.

Eight of these have been repeatedly tested.

This reflects a 25% case positive rate, but health officials say that the average case positive rate over a period of time is a better indicator of the actual positive rate.

The number of cases in May has more than tripled compared to April.

Health and Welfare Minister Dr. Michael Durville, who said authorities are closely monitoring trends, said last week that restrictions do not need to be tightened this time.

He was answering questions about whether the government considered introducing tests for domestic travel from New Providence to other Family Island.

The minister also advised that health officials, who were expected to meet this week, are still discussing removing the requirement to wear masks in certain settings on some Family Island without active COVID-19 cases. Did.

“That’s what we’re investigating, and this Wednesday, the Commission will consider it again.”

“One of the concerns we have about Maskman dating is the fact that after arriving in the Bahamas, there is no test for foreigners or anyone traveling (taking a test to go) to the United States.

“With the peaks and valleys seen in the ongoing spikes and COVID, we are on the verge of functioning with caution.”