The Tribune

By EARYEL BOWLEG

Tribune Staff Reporter

ebowleg@tribunemedia.net

WHILE there is opposition in some quarters to new curfew restrictions put on several Family Islands due to emerging COVID-19 cases, the head of the Consultant Physicians Staff Association suggested the measure is appropriate at this stage.

On Wednesday, Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis announced the daily curfew on Andros, the Berry Islands and Cat Island will be 8pm to 5am.

He said health teams were headed to those islands for outbreak investigation.

When asked yesterday about her thoughts on the move, Dr Sabriquet Pinder-Butler said: “I’m not surprised that unfortunately this would have happened because we already knew that we were perhaps having those cases but just unfortunately there might have been delays with reporting or with them actually speaking to the numbers that have impacted those islands.

“Certainly, when we talk about the government being able to put things in place swiftly that will help to mitigate the spread. I think that is something that is good, if indeed we are working in that direction because we know that with persons being able to move freely between the islands – and I think this is one of our concerns when we talk about persons being able to travel and the testing, that may be removed as a step to allow us to see especially when persons may not even have to quarantine.

“It’s certainly something that we have to keep in view. Unfortunately, we also know that through the islands perhaps persons are getting antigen tests which are not being recorded in our numbers, so our numbers are perhaps higher than what we’re seeing and so when things happen we know that we have to be able to put certain measures to continue to safeguard the country.”

In addition to officials putting in restrictions where necessary, she said people need to take personal responsibility for their health as well.

“We have to take that very seriously and I think some of those other islands have perhaps a larger population of even older persons, which are persons unfortunately that aren’t necessarily faring as well with COVID and might have more severe illness. So I think perhaps those measures may be appropriate at this stage and then we’ll have to watch the trends.”

Progressive Liberal Party candidate for Mangrove Cay and South Andros Leon Lundy has raised concerns about the curfew and called for exemptions this crab season.

“The Prime Minister, who is also the Minister of Finance, must know that Andros is on the cusp of the crab season which provides an economic boost for an already struggling economy,” Mr Lundy said in a statement. “This blanket approach is neither practical nor prudent in these circumstances. The practice of catching crabs is not done in group settings; it is achieved by individual or family groups – which implies that social distancing is a natural feature. Last year around this same period, exemptions were made to allow for individuals and families to conduct their ‘crab catching’. It is imperative that the Competent Authority allow for exemptions this time around also.”

He added: “Any economic shock, such as this curfew, could prove detrimental to families who depend on crab season to provide a real and financial injection into their pockets, and to the overall economy of Andros. Should we have our people who are willing to put in the work for their living now be subjected to social assistance through National Insurance or Social Services?”

As of May 1, fully vaccinated people can travel to The Bahamas without a negative COVID-19 RT-PCR test. Fully vaccinated travellers within the country are exempted from test requirements when travelling to and from New Providence, Grand Bahama, Abaco, Exuma and Eleuthera.

Dr Pinder-Butler has urged caution in this regard, saying even vaccinated people can still spread the virus.

“We know that persons can still transmit disease even though the numbers are thought to be low. We have yet to say that persons haven’t been able to transmit the virus and so when it happens we still have to continue to practice those safety measures such as washing our hands, social distancing, wearing our masks. Making sure that we understand that we don’t drop our guards because persons perhaps have the virus before they get vaccinated which means that they can still perhaps pass it on to other persons, we don’t know.

“If persons aren’t being tested, who is following up on those persons—will it be through the health visas that I understand are still in place? We just don’t know and even though at best we want those measures to be in place the reality is we perhaps may not have sufficient capacity to properly do surveillance amongst our people.

“We want to say, yes, we could have other things with our police officers and our COVID police, but do we have sufficient staff? Are we placing additional burdens on those persons as well who are also trying to safeguard our country in other means?”