NASSAU, BAHAMAS — Some 130 healthcare professionals in New Providence and Grand Bahama are out of the system due to exposure to COVID-19, according to Minister of Health Dr Michael Darville.
Darville was responding to questions from members of the media outside Cabinet regarding the delivery of healthcare following the confirmation of nearly 1,500 cases within the past few days.
“We do admit that some of our staff is out as a result of exposure to COVID, whether its isolation or quarantine, but we are able to provide the essential services,” he said.
“At our Legacy Unit we have admissions and we are opening more of the tents.
“But I must admit that due to the exposure of our staff members, some of our essential services had to be cut back and even though we have sufficient bed space, we are now restructuring to ensure that we find the staff where individuals who will be admitted will be able to go in those particular wards.”
He said just over 100 health care workers in New Providence and 30 in Grand Bahama at the Rand Memorial Hospital were out of the system.
“We are working across the board to bring in healthcare professionals from public health to ensure that our core hospitals are functioning and functioning adequately so if there is an additional surge we will be able to cope,” Darville added.
Health officials recorded 315 cases on Monday, taking the number of cases in the country to 26,326, with 3,507 still active.
Of those new cases, 279 were on New Providence, 22 on Grand Bahama, two on Abaco, one on Eleuthera, one on Exuma, four on Long Island, two on San Salvador, and four with locations still pending.
There are currently 58 hospitalized cases, of which 55 are moderately ill and three are in the intensive care unit.
Darville noted that of those in the hospital, it is difficult to differentiate who may be COVID-positive with symptoms from COVID or whether or not they are COVID-positive with other complications.
He said it is a cross-section of people and officials are trying to determine the correct number.
The country began seeing record cases just days before the Christmas holiday and recorded some 330 cases on Christmas Day. Since then, that daily record has been surpassed with 520 cases being recorded on Thursday.
The Ministry of Health reported another 289 new infections on Friday, 249 cases on Saturday and 477 on Sunday.
“We anticipate during the holiday weekend there were some gatherings we were concerned about and that they could potentially be super spreaders,” the health minister said, when asked whether officials expect an additional surge in cases due to the Christmas and New Year’s holiday.
“We are watching the amount of cases and we have been doing an excessive amount of testing.
“What is concerning us is the percentage of testing is proven to be higher than we anticipate, which is an indication that the disease burden is relatively high in the country and we are preparing ourselves to ensure there we have adequate healthcare protocols in place.”
The health minister insisted that the government is doing all that it can do with the situation and urged Bahamians to follow the protocols.
He said every country across the world is having difficulties with the control of the new Omicron variant because of its transmissibility and infectiousness.
Darville said along with distributing free masks and introducing free testing on New Providence, the government also intends to bring in additional doctors and nurses to the hospital system.
He advised that an additional 50 nurses from abroad will be brought into the country to assist in the fight against COVID.
Free testing began yesterday at vaccination sites across the capital.
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