HEALTH Minister Dr Duane Sands.
By RASHAD ROLLE
Tribune Senior Reporter
rrolle@tribunemedia.net
HEALTH Minister Dr Duane Sands said the number of coronavirus cases in the country is expected to increase in the coming days.
His comment came after Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis revealed confirmed cases had risen to three. Dr Minnis said the two new cases are household members of the first person to test positive for COVID-19, a 61-year-old woman. The two new cases had travelled to jurisdictions with known community transmission: Canada, Trinidad and Dubai.
“These household contacts have been quarantined and samples taken for testing,” he said.
Deputy Chief Medical Officer Dr Delon Brennen said after a press conference yesterday the two people are not in hospital.
Dr Brennen said the technical team of the Ministry of Health has continued to recommend that social distancing polices be made an “institution,” not just recommendations for preventing spread of the novel coronavirus.
Some health officials expected Dr Minnis to announce mandatory social distancing orders yesterday when he brought emergency powers regulations to the House of Assembly, however he did not.
The prime minister did not directly answer reporters who asked him after the House of Assembly when he will make orders under the new regulations.
Meanwhile, Chief Medical Officer Dr Pearl McMillan said the surveillance team of the Ministry of Health, which has ten members, would struggle to trace contacts for all three confirmed cases of the coronavirus as effectively as needed. She said the team will have to be augmented with additional staff. “Certainly our human resource capacity within the Ministry of Health, the surveillance unit, is something we are actually looking at augmenting,” she said. “We have the now three cases and we have to do contact tracing for all three and as the circle widens it may require that we need to augment out capacity. We’ve been looking at bringing in other categories of staff that can potentially augment and assist with probably doing the testing and as well as probably get additional nurses by shutting down some of our usual business work within the minister and Department of Public Health.”
Dr McMillan said the Ministry of Health’s hotline has been “ringing off the hook” with calls. She said officials are looking at expanding its call numbers.
Dr Sands also said the country has additional test kits, with more on the way.
Comments
Well_mudda_take_sic 4 years, 9 months ago
It seems this clown has finally figured out something that has all along been as certain as the sun setting tonight, thanks in large part to the Minnis-led government's failure to implement early containment measures.
Even now Minnis is still way behind the curve in dealing with this grave crisis. Latest case in point is the thousands of spring breakers who have recently come to our beaches. Governor Santis kicked these Covid-19 carrying spring breakers off of Florida's beaches and common sense should have told Minnis that many of them would hop on a plane to Nassau. The Minnis-led government failed to act in concert with Florida and similtaneously shut down our beaches so that these Covid-19 carrying spring breakers would have stayed away from our country. Thanks tt our reckless Minnis-led government we are likely to soon have a situation worse than even Italy is going through.
ThisIsOurs 4 years, 9 months ago
I wonder. Everyone is talking about the rate of infection doubling everyday, but is it really? Or is it the rate of discovery that's doubling? We had the first case in hospital and we knew about that 1 case. Then we reported 2 yesterday, so on our books the number of infections doubled, but that's wrong, those persons were already infected... before "discovery" 0
Basically once a person gets symptoms you test the persons around them and "discover" 3 more people...you test the people that the 2nd carrier knows and 3 more people and on and on. So it's not that the infection is spreading dramatically (its spreading yes)...but it was already there.
How many persons visited China in November December and January?
The only way to know the real rate of infection would be to test every single person, every single day. which is impossible today.
tell_it_like_it_is 4 years, 9 months ago
Good points all around. Sands was the same one who said that The Bahamas will only get 400 cases. I have absolutely no confidence in Sands.
To be honest, we probably already have more than 400 cases in The Bahamas. It's not like we are testing people much. Then, most people (80%) will experience mild symptoms or none at all. So that leaves me to believe many people already had Covid19 and just chalked it up to that "bad flu" going around that everyone was talking about earlier.
So the good news is we will probably be okay. The bad news is... for those with pre-existing conditions and are over 65... our health care system sucks and therefore the system will not handle more people like this going to the hospital at the same time.
That's the main issue in Italy. An Italian friend told me today that many elderly are in the hospital at the same time and they don't have enough beds or respirators (and they have a great health care system). Imagine us??? SMH
bogart 4 years, 9 months ago
Very good. Question is if you don't trust Sands.... then would you then trust the stand in Minister Jeff Lloyd of the Ministry of Education of the future of the Nation's youth ...to take the lead...???
ThisIsOurs 4 years, 9 months ago
I trust Sands. I dont think it would make much of a difference if he'd said 400 or 4000, at 50-100 serious infections we are beyond serious trouble. At 20 we're in trouble. Some of us are already infected we just don't know and every day each of us could be unknowingly infecting others.
My point is that the infection curves aren't really giving the real story. They're actually "discovery" curves. We cant know what the infection rate is unless we knew what the infection state of a statistical sample of the population was 3weeks ago.
ThisIsOurs 4 years, 9 months ago
Another thing, I understand that managing patients on a respirator is a skill. Just because you have on a white coat doesn't mean you know how to do it. This includes doctors with 1 year of experience and doctors with decades of experience. Not everyone knows how.
Patients on respirators are in serious trouble and need critical care, respirators help but if you add to the mix someone who doesn't know how to manage the respirator, you haven't really helped and maybe someone who should have lived died not because of the virus (directly) but because of mismanagement
Well_mudda_take_sic 4 years, 9 months ago
You're confusing respirators and ventilators.
ThisIsOurs 4 years, 9 months ago
ah. thank you for correcting my fake news
ThisIsOurs 4 years, 9 months ago
I take it back...apparently it's not faje news. Managing ventilators does require special knowledge. Throwing an inexperienced nurse to take care of a patient on a ventilator where the nurse doesn't truly understand the biology the nurse coukd believe they're responding to symptoms, adjust levels and patient dies. I am not a doctor but that's my understanding. Some of these deaths may be due to mismanagement. We will never know, the patients were very ill. The scariest thing is the people who do know how to operate the equipment are the ones putting themselves in the greatest danger.
tell_it_like_it_is 4 years, 9 months ago
Bogart, we are in the hands of the good Lord. lol
To make a statement that we won't have more than 400 cases shows complete incompetence. Therefore I can't trust someone like that.
The spread of this virus will largely be impacted by individual Bahamians exercising wisdom with social distancing, hand washing, etc. Do I trust us to make wise decisions??? God help us all!
bogart 4 years, 9 months ago
Tellitlikeitis...I agree we are all in the hands of Lord. Some 2 weeks go the Globe and Mail newspaper carries some charts on steep curve and less steep curve. I believe we have a good chance of getting through it minimal challenges by together working known advices to avoid harm, despite charts or no charts curve or no curve. This ia an archipelago nation and on every island there very sturdy residents who have been doing many wise decisions keeping themselves healthy and many now here done instilled cleanliness hygene done to when ya going out always have yourself nicely clean down to wearing cleanest nicest underwear, always wash your hands, cut ya nails, if ya get knock down and nurse and doctor have to see you....tell me if no island people incl Nassau people never hear good hygnever hear cleanliness is next to Godlyness...
tetelestai 4 years, 9 months ago
ThisisOurs, I am not so sure that rate of infection and rate of discovery are actually mutually exclusive. The more troubling question is whether both are doubling - i.e. as we test more we discover more and that the infected pass it on to the uninfected. I believe this is what is occurring in The Bahamas. But, your overall point that we test everyone seems to be a reasoned action.
TalRussell 4 years, 9 months ago
Makes you want rush out buys even more Jumbo packages 48 rolls Toilet-papers scary when we left wonder - what else the governments globally are holding back from their comrade PopoulacesOrdinary? Four-hundred confirmed cases coronoavirs - will double to 800 and so on and so forth?
The health minister's projection statement is recklessly Fake when looking at what is happening just in Italy where since 31 January 2020, when two tourists were confirmed to have the deadly virus, the Italians are now witnessing 475 fatalities in just a single day! It does appear by the government's own admission that to date only the Colony's capital is on their coronoavirus radar? Yeah, no?
proudloudandfnm 4 years, 9 months ago
So I'm told the tests are $500.00....
Friend went to the lab here in GB yesterday and was told $500.00....
If this is true it must be stopped immediately, no one should have to pay for this test and even if they do $500.00 is evil and just plain wrong....
TalRussell 4 years, 9 months ago
I think the friend comrade Proud got the pricing wrong. The $500 was but a [mixture of guesswork] projections for the lab test's - end price? Lab test $500, doctor's visit $135, fill prescription $300 - comes to $945 plus GST. Might be better go buy some grocery, then go shopping for some nice new dress up clothes before returning back home and to do some cooking - whilst waiting for that much dreaded long distance final curtain call from we sweet Jesus. Yeah, no? Amen!
Well_mudda_take_sic 4 years, 9 months ago
And Minnis and Sands will quickly tell you most medical doctors won't sneeze on you for less than $500 !!
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