The Tribune

By LEANDRA ROLLE

Tribune Staff Reporter

lrolle@tribunemedia.net

ANDROS residents say they fear there could be more COVID-19 cases in the community after a local tested positive for the virus last week, becoming the island’s first COVID case.

Pastor Vyreen Bain, of Stafford Creek, said while most residents on the island have been taking the COVID-19 threat seriously long before it spread to the island, locals are now on high alert as a result of the island’s first case.

“I am very concerned. I was concerned from day one,” she told The Tribune yesterday. “I’m a pastor and I was talking to a minister and I said there are more in Andros. Trust me, if it’s one because that one has a family okay and if they don’t have it now, (it’s a possibility) they will be infected sooner or later and they will all have to go in quarantine. To me, it’s more than one and we have to prayerful.”

Since the start of the pandemic, Andros has remained COVID-19 free until now. Before the island even recorded a case, Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis had resumed commercial activity in the southern islands with no COVID cases earlier this month.

Pastor Bain told this newspaper that many residents were highly upset over the move.

However, the religious leader said she feels that the new case will serve as a wake-up call for residents who were not taking the infectious disease seriously beforehand.

“I can tell you some Andros people relaxed. Not all but some,” she added. “Just this past week, I went to a food store and a gentleman was in there bragging how Andros was COVID free and he was from the settlement of Cargill creek and he said ‘we are COVID free and we are not checking. We are doing what we want to do freely’ and I said, ‘sir we might be COVID free but we still have to follow the protocols by the government.”

“I said ‘we might be COVID free today, but we don’t know what tomorrow hold.’ I told him we have to pray.”

Mrs Kavia Russell-Stewart, an Andros native who is currently living in Nassau, also expressed similar concerns to the newspaper. She said the situation is particularly worrying due to the limited resources on the island, which could easily become a COVID-19 hotspot.

“We just have one bank in North Andros and everyone has to go to that bank because it’s just one ATM and literally everyone comes to the bank,” she noted to this newspaper. “We don’t have the big space like how ya’ll have social distancing. We don’t have all that because it’s only one little area,”

“…You still have to go to the shop. You have to go to the boat to pick up your stuff. Everyone basically dealing with the same water places. There are certain places that everyone have to go to so I don’t know how we’re going to deal with it.”

Mrs Russell- Stewart said she left New Providence last month to attend her grandfather’s funeral . However, after receiving no word from her employers about her return to work, she decided to remain on the island.

The mother of three said she also thought it best “to stay put” on Andros given the surge of cases in the capital.

She said: “I came home in July for my grandfather’s funeral and I just ended up having to stay because I haven’t got called back to work yet and because of all of the cases (there), I said ‘let me stay put for right now.”

“For me to be lockdown in Nassau it’s crazy compared to being lockdown at home because we still have mobility and so I was all excited and now to see that we have one case it’s like holy cow.”

She added: “Because I went in the food store and I was still hugging people and I was still like ‘ hey’ because a lot of people don’t know that I’m here because I don’t go out so when they see me, they’re like ‘ you’re home.’

“Now, when I thought about it, I was like I don’t even know if it was that person or if was those people in that store.”

Like many other locals, the mother of three said she feels there are more infected people within the community. In view of this, Mrs Russell-Stewart said Androsians want more clarity on the location of the positive case and how many people are in quarantine on the island. “I’m disappointed that we don’t have that transparency because Andros is big and you can’t say one case in Andros. Is it in South Andros? Is it in Mangrove Cay? Is it in Central Andros? Is it Nichols Town? Where is it?” she said.

“…I personally believe that this isn’t the only case and I believe there are more. And I heard the other day that people are coming here from Bimini on these speedboats so what’s going on with that?”

“In no way am I bashing our government…but at the same time, I want to know what’s going on here.”