Health Minister Dr Duane Sands.
By FARRAH JOHNSON
fjohnson@tribunemedia.net
ALL those who were under quarantine amid fears of the spread of the deadly coronavirus have been released, Health Minister Dr Duane Sands said yesterday.
Dr Sands said that there are no suspected, reported or confirmed cases of the virus in the country to date.
His comments came during the mid-year budget debate in the House of Assembly yesterday.
“As of today, there are not and have not been any suspected, reported or confirmed cases of COVID-19 in The Bahamas,” he said.
“I am pleased to advise that as of today, all persons who were quarantined have been released, all asymptomatic and now returning to normal activities.”
Last month, the government banned travel from China after the World Health Organisation declared the new strain of the coronavirus a public health emergency of international concern.
At the time, non-residents who visited China in the last 20 days were denied entry to the country regardless of their nationality and returning residents were quarantined and monitored for symptoms during an incubation period of 14 days in an effort to combat the spread of the new coronavirus.
To date, there have been 71,451 confirmed cases of the disease worldwide with 1,776 reported deaths.
Dr Sands said his ministry “will remain vigilant” in monitoring the matter.
Comments
Well_mudda_take_sic 4 years, 2 months ago
Over 69,000 of the 71,451 cases confirmed worldwide are in Red China as are most of the deaths confirmed to date. U.S. health authorities still believe the ruthless Xi-led communist regime is significantly understating both the number of infected persons and number of deaths in Red China. The percentage of infected persons over the age of 60 who die from the highly infectious coronavirus is frighteningly high.....more than 1 in 10, i.e. more than 10%.
Most of the deaths result from severe pulmonary (breathing) problems and renal (kidney) failure. The human body's most important defense mechanism in fighting such a virus is a high fever, but the coronavirus is proving to be unusually resistent to heat. This also means the coronavirus will be much less inclined to abate when summer comes and could well continue its spread into next year. The conavirus is also four or five times more infectious than the most infectious forms of the flu virus which means it is spreading rapidly to many other countries. It's no longer a question of whether there will be an outbreak on New Providence, but rather when will it happen.
Being a tourist destination we are especially vulnerable to undectable asymptomatic infected carriers arriving by air or sea. At this time the vast majority of such infected carriers will have had contact with other infected persons in Red China or other East Asian countries. Minnis and Sands, both medical doctors, have thus far failed to provide the Bahamian public with specific detailed information of the preparedness measures being taken to ensure the Bahamas has adequate hospital/clinic beds, medical supplies and healthcare personnel available to deal with a major outbreak of the coronavirus. We can ill-afford yet another instance of unpreparedness and chaos of the kind we saw in the immediate aftermath of the Dorian crisis. The Bahamian people need and deserve much more detailed information about the measures being taken by government to address a major outbreak of the coronavirus in the Bahamas.
Well_mudda_take_sic 4 years, 2 months ago
Oh, and by the way Dr. Sands, please stop feeding us a worthless bill of goods about what the World Health Organization (WHO) and Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) are doing to protect the Bahamian people. For decades now the useless bureaucrats at these organizations have been providing our own government healthcare officials with advice and just look where that has gotten us.
The WHO and PAHO have never had protecting the health of Bahamians high up on their list of priority matters as evidenced by the very dysfunctional and inadequate state of our public healthcare system today. We, as a country, had better start doing much more for ourselves rather than waiting on these organizations to tell us down the road what preparations we should have already done at a time when it's too late for us to act in our best interests.
Sickened 4 years, 2 months ago
For God sake's call the virus by it's proper (scientific) name now. Why say China? Is it because you assume Bahamians only know it started in China?
Well_mudda_take_sic 4 years, 2 months ago
My God you're right...people might think I'm talking about another virus....incidentally, there are two Chinas.....which one would you have us believe you're talking about?
SP 4 years, 2 months ago
Not surprisingly, China kept the virus a secret as long as they could, then lied to the world about every aspect of the outbreak.
They are just allowing the movement of people and reopening for business. My prediction is the "reopening" is way too premature and the worst is yet to come.
We will see in 21 days if China and any country stupid enough to allow Chinese travelers into their borders if the threat has been contained OR will this be the start of a new bigger problem for China!
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