NASSAU, BAHAMAS — With thousands of international visitors moving throughout the country’s borders, local healthcare officials have raised concerns over the new COVID-19 subvariant, Omicron XBB 1.5, behind large outbreaks in China and the United States.
This week, the Ministry of Health & Wellness announced the reinstatement of visitation restrictions at the Princess Margaret Hospital as the number of detected covid cases in the hospital climbed to 18.
Consultant Physicians Staff Association President, Dr. Sabriquet Pinder-Butler said that since the first two years of the pandemic and people being vaccinated, they have not seen the influx of sick patients crowding hospitals.
“What we’ve been finding even when we’ve had an uptick in cases, fortunately, is we’ve not seen the burden we’ve had several years prior when we were dealing with the pandemic and so that might be because we certainly know that there has to be a greater level of immunity,” she said.
The CPSA president said that because we are in the winter season and many people have been traveling and socializing, a further uptick in cases is possible.
“It will not be surprising that we would see an uptick in cases and I think that we would have actually already seen and heard anecdotally of patients and persons in the country having quote unquote the flu,” Pinder-Butler said.
“A lot of persons aren’t going to get it tested anymore to see if it’s covid so in fact, we often tell patients that even though you think its the flu it very-well most likely be covid.”
Butler-Pinder explained that although they cannot predict how much impact this variant will have on the country, looking back at other recent subvariants, most people have been fortunate to have only experienced mild symptoms.
“We’re hopeful that, that continues to be the case that persons have, we might get ill from the illness but it may be short-lived or not necessarily cause hospitalization or severe illness for persons who are at increased risks,” she said.
She is still encouraging people to be careful and not to visit others when unwell, wear masks if they are ill with the flu or covid, and practice healthy lifestyles to avoid getting ill.
“I think that we have to be mindful as we know that covid is due to a virus we also know that we have come out of and are still in the winter season, flu is also rampant as well, so persons have to be mindful of those things and continue to practice those preventative measures that we have found to be very very helpful, such as making sure our immune systems are well.”
The physician added that she believes people should still take vaccines and flu shots during the season.
“We should all appreciate that vaccines have been an important part of our healthcare system for years.
“We know that there have been newer vaccines that have come out and so we are watching to see how effective those things will be,” Pinder-Butler said.
Loading ...
