The Tribune

THE Ministry of Health recorded 14 new cases of COVID-19 on Thursday, continuing a trend in declining numbers.

According to data released early Friday, there were six new cases in New Providence, four in Grand Bahama, three in Exuma and one case with its location pending.

Of the 14 new cases, 10 are female and four are male.

As of last report, there were 19 cases in hospital who were all listed as moderately ill.

Earlier this week, Minister Renward Wells declared in the House of Assembly that Bahamians are flattening the COVID-19 epidemic curve.

“A total of 42,458 RTPCR tests have been carried out for COVID-19. The average positivity over the past week is 8.6 percent, down from a weekly average of 17 percent,” Mr Wells told Parliament on Thursday. “Active cases are also trending down. There are 1,475 active cases. Fifty-six persons were added to our cumulative recovery total bringing the count to 5,789 for a recovery rate of 77.4 percent.”

He also said emergency measures which have been utilised by the Minnis administration during the pandemic have helped lower case numbers.

“While it is true that the entire Bahamas only experienced one complete lockdown in April, 2020, other islands such as Grand Bahama and Bimini, experienced lockdowns for some two weeks to control the spread of the virus on these islands,” he said. “Controlled weekday and 24-hour weekend curfews have been most effective on the islands of Eleuthera, Exuma, Abaco and New Providence to bring the overall transmission down, ‘flatten the curve,’ reduce infections and avoid overwhelming our treasured health care system.”

The country has had 7,496 cases confirmed to date.