The Tribune

By KHRISNA RUSSELL

Tribune Chief Reporter

krussell@tribunemedia.net

CONSULTANT physicians are concerned about the hundreds of COVID-19 cases recorded in recent days, a representative has told The Tribune.

Dr John Dillett, vice president of the Consultant Physicians Staff Association, said the more than 600 new cases confirmed over the past few days was especially worrisome because there still remained a large unvaccinated population in the country.

The latest Ministry of Health vaccines tracker says 154,153 people are fully inoculated in The Bahamas.

Alongside this, there were 665 new cases of the virus recorded over a four-day period from December 23 to 26, with Christmas Day alone accounting for 330 infections. The Ministry of Health said there were 85 new infections on Boxing Day. New Providence accounted for 81 of the cases. Both Grand Bahama and Exuma recorded one case, while there were two in Bimini and Cat Cay.

The 330 cases recorded on Christmas Day marked the highest daily infection count the country has recorded since the start of the pandemic.

On December 23, there were 159 cases of coronavirus and the following day saw 91 cases recorded. The nation now has 24,045 confirmed cases, of which 1,383 are active.

Yesterday, Dr Dillett cautioned Bahamians not to let their guards down.

“It definitely is a concern,” Dr Dillet said of the rise in cases over the last four days. “We cannot afford to let our guards down.

“There are so many persons who are still unvaccinated and those persons continue to be at significant risk for developing serious health issues from COVID. Even with the new strain Omicron they still are at risk for developing severe symptoms and potentially could be hospitalised.

“The good news is that for persons who are vaccinated, transmissibility rates are relatively low in terms of getting the virus or transmitting it to others and persons who are vaccinated are less likely to see any serious symptoms as a result of any of the COVID-19 strains, but we have to remember both from a personal responsibility standpoint as well as a national pride standpoint that it’s everybody’s responsibility to maintain the social distancing, wear the masks and sanitise hands so that we could try to keep rates as low as possible and, of course, hospitalisations as low as possible as well.”

The latest data from health officials shows only 18 people are in hospital with the virus.

Asked whether low hospital admissions are a good sign the county may be in a better position to ride out the fourth wave of the virus, Dr Dillett said in his view it was still too early to predict.

“I think it’s too early to say for sure. Obviously, the virus is taking many twists and turns in the mutations and it’s difficult to say at this point whether or not we will have a wave that is relatively mild in terms of hospitalisations.

“We don’t want to take any chances with anyone’s lives so we, the CPSA suggest, that we don’t let our guards down. Continue to wear your masks, continue to socially distance, avoid large gatherings because we simply do not know yet how the wave will turn out.

“The old saying is an ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure so that’s what we recommend as well. Let’s continue to keep our guards up.”

The Ministry of Health has resorted to tightening some measures like suspending approvals of large gatherings, as well as pausing already granted approvals for events.

Health officials will update the country today at 2pm on the fight against COVID-19.