The Tribune

By KHRISNA RUSSELL

Tribune Chief Reporter

krussell@tribunemedia.net

CONSULTANT Physicians Staff Association president Dr Sabriquet Pinder-Butler has raised alarm over the apparent level of community spread that has been fuelling the rise in COVID-19 infections.

She said the issue has not only created strain in the healthcare system where around 130 workers are out sick in New Providence and Grand Bahama due to the virus, but made it difficult to get a handle on transmissions.

Her comments came as the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention increased The Bahamas’ travel risk warning to level three – reconsider travel.

“We have been in this pandemic for a while now,” Dr Pinder-Butler said yesterday when asked if the rise in cases was reason enough to tighten restrictions.

“We have seen different modalities that have helped with curbing cases which have helped with mitigating spread such as wearing masks, washing hands (and) trying to social distance as much as possible.

“We know that vaccinations have also been a part of the material as it relates to covid and the fight against the pandemic. Unfortunately, we also know that different variants have had different levels of transmissibility and we’ve seen further increases with Delta and then Omicron that we believe is in the country. So, all of those things allow for the COVID pandemic to potentially have been worse than what we saw when we first had COVID as it relates to case numbers and how things are managed.

“Certainly we know that certain restrictive measures with us not moving about as much with us limiting the amount of contact we have with people as much as possible, we know that those things have also helped in terms of being able to contain certain things and have also helped as it relates to our healthcare institutions being able to try to combat the impact that the overwhelming pandemic has had on top of non-COVID cases can do to the healthcare system and that was primarily too why we even had supported certain restrictions as it relates to movements and as it related to curfews and those types of things.”

She continued: “I think at this stage it behoves us as a people to bear those things in mind.

“Often times we say we’ve been waiting for the country or the government to make these things but I think we’ve all been in this pandemic long enough now that we can take certain measures ourselves to restrict certain things and activities that we’re involved with, certain crowds that we may be around.

“Certainly, when you have this amount of community spread it is difficult as it relates to transmission. So, we have to be mindful of those things but at this particular point we have to continue to see what is happening in other countries and see what’s been helping and be able to move as necessary.”

She said there was also noticeable strain at the nation’s healthcare facilities.

“It’s similar to what you might see at a bank. I have heard people complaining recently that hours have had to change and you’re not able to access things all the time because if you don’t have persons in place to run those operations then they can’t be had.

“So, unfortunately, we’ve had to restrict specialty clinics. We’ve had to restrict certain theatre services and a lot of things because of the wide community spread, which has now impacted our healthcare, our staff, impacted patients who are coming to the hospital and all of those things.

“So, it has been significant despite best efforts for us to contain things as best as we can given the challenges with manpower and those types of things. So, that within itself is unfortunately inevitable when you have community spread at this level.”

Last month, Prime Minister Philip “Brave” Davis said “blunt instruments like shutting down our borders or prolonged, nationwide lockdowns are off the table” when addressing the latest wave of COVID-19 cases.