The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

Dr Duane Sands yesterday warned that current COVID-19 infection rates would "knock us out of the tourism market" as he called for a "radical change" in The Bahamas' approach to fighting the virus.

The ex-minister of health told Tribune Business he had not heard or seen anything "that suggests we have the formula" to safely re-open The Bahamas' largest industry and employer as local COVID-19 cases continue to mount at the rate of between 50-100 per day.

While his former Cabinet colleague, Dionisio D'Aguilar, minister of tourism and aviation, has suggested the Government is looking at ramped-up post-arrival and in-stay testing as the solution to tourism's dilemma over the 14-day quarantine, Dr Sands questioned whether there was sufficient data and science to support abandoning the latter measure.

"The local infection rate would knock us out of the market," Dr Sands said, when asked about the likelihood of tourism's revival. "Our infection rate puts us near the top in terms of infection per capita. We are going to have to drastically change our approach where we do not have the daily cases we currently have.

"Imagine getting back to when six cases per day was thought to be too much. We are at a clip per capita that puts us among the top ten to 20 countries in terms of the number of cases per million per day. We've got to get that under control and it's going to require a really aggressive approach and deviation from the current approach."

Reiterating that The Bahamas has not been testing as much as it needed to, Dr Sands said The Bahamas still has the chance to become a safe tourist destination "pace setter" if it adopts the more rapid form of antigen testing, which is said to provide COVID-19 results within 15 to 30 minutes. Some 120m of these test kits were yesterday reported as being made available to medium and low income states.

However, Dr Sands questioned the decision to abandon the current mandatory 14-day quarantine requirement for all visitors in the absence of "robust data" suggesting it was safe to do so.

"As long as you don't have the data you're flying blind," he added. "I don't know on what basis, what undergirds that decision. Is it a vision from God that says it's OK to get rid of it? I don't know."

Mr D'Aguilar on Monday signalled that post-arrival COVID-19 testing for tourists may be part of the solution to "easing" the mandatory 14-day quarantine impediment to the industry's revival.

While declining to provide details on the outcome of talks between his officials and the Ministry of Health, he said an announcement on a proposed solution could "hopefully come this week".

Confirming that The Bahamas has no plans to abandon the demand for a negative COVID-19 PCR test from visitors prior to their arrival, the minister said the Government had been maintaining a keen watch on what other tourism-reliant jurisdictions were doing to balance re-opening with mitigating the risk posed by the virus.

In particular, he cited the likes of Bermuda and Hawaii, which are both conducting COVID-19 testing when visitors arrive and, in the latter's case, during their stay. The Dominican Republic, too, has shifted to testing for COVID-19 upon arrival, while Barbados, too, is conducting on-site testing of visitors.

Given The Bahamas' existing difficulties with testing and contact tracing involving its own citizens and residents, some observers are likely to be sceptical as to whether on-arrival and in-stay testing, or a combination of both, will adequately mitigate the COVID-19 risks involving tourists. Tracking down those staying in vacation rental accommodation could prove especially challenging.