Prime Minister Dr. Hubert Minnis is expected to announce a lockdown for Grand Bahama during a live press conference at Cabinet Office tomorrow morning.
As the new Minister of Health was being sworn in today, The Bahamas experienced another record breaking COVID-19 positive case day; 21 persons tested positive.
Today, 20 out of the 21persons who tested positive for coronavirus are on the island of Grand Bahama.
On Sunday during his national address, the Prime Minister gave Grand Bahama 72 hours to reduce its number of positive COVID-19 cases or face a lockdown on Friday.
On Sunday, there were 15 confirmed cases - 13 on Grand Bahama and two on New Providence.
According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention U.S.A., the incubation period for the novel coronavirus is somewhere between 2 to 14 days after exposure.
In order for a lockdown to be effective, Bruse Aylward, Senior Advisor to the Director General of the World Health Organization (WHO) said that lockdowns will have to last for at least two weeks.
For the billions of people who are living under some form of stay-at-home or lockdown orders, the guidance issued by the WHO on when to lift these restrictions are:-
1. Health systems should be able to detect, test, isolate and treat every case and trace every contact.
2. The risk of importing new cases “can be managed”.
Based on these guidelines, one can question whether the government was prepared for the reopening of our borders.
Grand Bahama, now the epicenter of the coronavirus in The Bahamas, only has three days to prepare for this inevitable lockdown.
Grand Bahamians should now be making preparations to ensure that they have sufficient food to sustain themselves for a two-week lockdown.
The question is what is the government doing to ensure that there is sufficient food on the island prior to the lockdown? Also, is 72 hours sufficient time to give Grand Bahamians to prepare for the lockdown?
Today the total number of confirmed cases is 174; 101 on New Providence, 59 on Grand Bahama, 13 on Bimini and 1 on Cat Cay.
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