Nine Bahamians and five Americans test positive
“They were all contacts who got together off-base after hours”
ANDROS, BAHAMAS — Officer in Charge of the Naval Undersea Warfare Center Detachment AUTEC Commander Michael Woodcock has confirmed that nine Bahamians and five Americans have tested positive for COVID-19 on the Andros base.
In an interview with Eyewitness News, Woodcock said while he did not wish to assign blame, a group of Bahamian personnel was exposed to the virus off-base, which led to several contacts becoming infected.
Woodcock said contact tracing has taken place related to all confirmed cases.
“I don’t mean this to be negative toward anybody,” Woodcock said.
“We had multiple local Bahamian workforce who were about town, who, after symptoms began, admitted that they were living [with] families whom they highly believed had COVID, and they did not report that they were symptomatic.
“They did not report that they were living with them when they were thought to have the virus, and they came to work.
“Every one of my positive cases, whether they’re American or Bahamian, are all close contacts with those individuals.”
Asked if any American who flew in from abroad tested positive or whether there were any imported cases, Woodcock said: “No. In fact, of all the persons that we know of…the last known traveler was on January 29.”
Woodcock expressed confidence in protocols at the base to mitigate spread of the virus.
“Every bit of contact tracing and screening that we have done for all those positives are tied to close contact with the positive cases — that came in from out-of-town, the KRS1 Force, they were all contacts who got together off-base after hours.
“No one else in my community appears to have been affected so far.”
According to the commander, the entire workforce is being tested over the next three days.
He said that process was 50 percent completed and that no other person has symptoms at this time.
In the last two weeks, seven cases have been recorded on Andros, according to the Ministry of Health’s COVID-19 dashboard.
This time last month, there were 46 cases on Andros since the onset of the pandemic. As of yesterday, Andros had 58 — an increase of 12 cases.
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