NASSAU, BAHAMAS — United States Embassy Chargé d’Affaires Usha Pitts said the US is in early negotiations with the government of The Bahamas to contribute personnel to the frontlines of the COVID-19 fight.
This comes as the nation enters an unprecedented phase of the pandemic with record cases and hospitalizations.
“The US has, throughout this pandemic, we’ve been focused on the support,” Pitts said.
“It’s not just about vaccines, right?
“So, we donated diagnostic equipment. We donated the freezers to store the vaccines, PPEs.
“We are constantly working with the Bahamian government to find out what we can do to support them.
“Samaritan’s Purse has been a partner to The Bahamas ever since Dorian and they’ve always come through really well.
“We understand that the hospitals are really suffering because basically they need more personnel.
“That’s on our list too — to see if we can support them with medical personnel to treat COVID cases.”
Asked if the personnel would include doctors and nurses specifically, Pitts said she was unable to disclose finite details as the discussions were in the preliminary stages.
“I can’t comment just yet; we’re just in the early phase of discussions,” the chargé said.
“So, like this third wave in The Bahamas, it is becoming a critical issue on the medical side of things. So, we’re just starting discussions on how we can support The Bahamas.”
Hospitalized cases have increased to 146 cases, up from the 138 reported on Tuesday.
Of those, 15 cases were in Intensive Care Units.
The Bahamas has around 140 beds for COVID patients.
The Bahamas recorded 1,221 cases this month alone.
Last month, a total of 2,185 cases were recorded — a record number of cases in a single month.
Another 130 cases were recorded on Wednesday.
Yesterday, the US donated 128,000 Pfizer COVID-19 vaccines — the single largest tranche of vaccine doses received to date.
It is the first tranche of a total of 400,000 doses of the US-manufactured vaccine.
