The Tribune

By LEANDRA ROLLE

Tribune Staff Reporter

lrolle@tribunemedia.net

AMID a decline of positive COVID-19 cases in the country, former Health Minister Dr Duane Sands says it appears the nation is “starting to come out” of its third wave of COVID-19, adding he hopes virus numbers continue to trend downward.

Since the start of the pandemic, The Bahamas has recorded more than 12,000 cases and 232 virus related deaths.

Yesterday, Dr Sands told the House of Assembly the only way the country can move on from the pandemic – allowing for the country’s ailing economy to rebound — is to remain a COVID-19 free or COVID safe destination.

He said the number of virus cases recorded in both April and May – when the country’s third wave was confirmed — was more than double the number of infections reported in March and were also higher than those recorded in “December, January, February” combined.

Since June, the number of new cases in the country has considerably declined, with only three new infections confirmed on Monday and 20 on Sunday.

“It seems as if we’re starting to come out of the third wave and I hope that the numbers bear that out,” the Elizabeth MP said during his contribution to the 2021/2022 budget debate yesterday.

“(But) if we are going to make it through this then The Bahamas has to claim that we are going to be the COVID safe country in the world. All of us have to understand how a low COVID environment is critical to our collective and individual survival.

“So, we’ve got to test more than we’re testing. We have to have good treatments but most importantly, we have to vaccinate. So far, we have been fortunate to have some 62,000 shots given; 48,000 plus have gotten their first shot and 13,000 plus have gotten their second shot. That’s only 4.7 percent of adults.”

Noting that more people need to get vaccinated, the former health minister said it will take a national effort for The Bahamas to achieve herd immunity against the virus.

Dr Sands has said at least “200,000 more people” need to be fully vaccinated to achieve this goal.

He said The Bahamas is currently ranked 26 out of 35 countries in the Americas region for vaccinations, a situation some may attribute to vaccine hesitancy.

Dr Sands described vaccine hesitancy as a worldwide problem and explained officials must tackle the issue by directly addressing the concerns Bahamians may have regarding coronavirus vaccines.

He said: “Now, I get it that people are afraid of vaccinations. There’s been a lot of discussions back and forth about side effects, about whether this is an experiment, about whether black or brown people are going to get sterilised. There’s a conspiracy. I get it.

“Vaccine hesitancy is greater among black and brown people around the world for good reason and yet, this is an existential issue for The Bahamas and so what we now need to do is address people to understand their concerns and not be dismissive and not to suggest that they are crazy or dumb or stupid, but to be loving, compassionate and understanding about the various concerns that people have because they have real concerns. Let us engage our public, one by one we can increase the number of people that are vaccinated. It will take a national effort in order to increase vaccinations.”

Dr Sands also spoke about the existing nursing shortage in the country, describing it as “one of the single greatest threats to national security and safety.”

He said many of the frontline workers have left the nation’s healthcare system, noting that in some units, they have lost as many as 50 percent of nurses.

“We are losing our nurses in droves,” he said. “They are leaving, they’re resigning. Some of them are dying.

“You see nurses form the backbone of healthcare delivery in all countries including The Bahamas...In the private sector and intensive care units, we have lost up to 50 percent of our critical care nurses.”

He said the situation has even affected services at Princess Margaret Hospital.

“At PMH, we cannot open our ICU to full capacity because we don’t have enough nurses. This is a critical problem, Mr Speaker. You can have all the whistles and bells, you could have the biggest towers but if you don’t have the human capital, we are not going to be able to care for our people. “

He continued: “COVID has interfered with the practical training of all healthcare professionals, including doctors and nurses. Graduate nurses, in particular, in The Bahamas, have had their clinical training delayed because of COVID and despite the paucity of nurses.

“Over the years, we have not provided the level of compensation of nurses that they deserve… We have not completed the revision of the nursing act and in the public sector, we had some shortage of 300 RNs and 102 TCNs.”