NASSAU, BAHAMAS — Health officials confirmed 81 additional cases of coronavirus in The Bahamas yesterday, taking the total number of cases in the country to 4,713.
Of the new cases, 77 were in New Providence, two in Grand Bahama, and two with locations pending.
The number of cases with locations pending now stands at 169 — the third-highest number of cases in a category.
Health officials have previously indicated that the cases with locations pending were the result of insufficient information provided upon testing.
During his national address on Sunday, Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis announced new measures in order to standardize COVID-19 RT PCR testing in The Bahamas.
Minnis noted that all laboratories providing COVID-19 tests will be required to be registered with the Ministry of Health and will be subject to periodic cross-referencing to ensure quality control.
Additionally, laboratories will be prohibited from administering the COVID-19 RT PCR test unless the patient provides all identifying information required by the Case Identification Form.
Those labs will now be required to turn around test results within a maximum of 48-hours.
Minnis said going forward, the Ministry of Health and the laboratories will collaborate to ensure the timely receipt of testing data by the Ministry of Health’s Surveillance Team and Contact Tracing Unit.
As of yesterday, there were 3,545 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in New Providence, 652 in Grand Bahama, 157 in Abaco, 54 in Bimini, 32 in Exuma, 25 in Eleuthera, 19 in Inagua, 15 in the Berry Islands, 12 in Long Island, nine in Andros, nine in Cat Island, seven in Acklins, five in Crooked Island, and three in Mayaguana.
Of those confirmed cases, 1,972 remain active, while 2,607 cases or 55 percent have recovered.
This also represents 70 additional recoveries since Tuesday.
Hospitalized cases declined from 113 to 109.
Meanwhile, COVID testing increased by 480 — from 22,559 to 23,039.
Yesterday, the prime minister New Providence and Abaco will see a return of increased restrictions, including a “full, 24-hour weekend curfew” over the upcoming holiday weekend and beyond, and a return of a nightly curfew beginning next week Tuesday.
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