NASSAU, Bahamas — A 51-year-old woman on Grand Bahama was the seventh person to die of COVID-19 in The Bahamas, health officials confirmed on Wednesday, April 8. The woman died on Monday and was tested posthumously, the Nassau Guardian reported.
Providing an update on Wednesday, Minister of Health Dr. Duane Sands said there are now 40 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the country – 33 on New Providence, six on Grand Bahama and one on Bimini. Five people have recovered.
Sands said that of the three other new cases, one patient has been admitted to the hospital. The remaining two are in isolation.
The case fatality rate in The Bahamas has been hovering between 17 and 18 percent. Director of the National HIV/AIDS & Infectious Diseases Programme Dr. Nikkiah Forbes said this is due to a lack of widespread testing.
“The mortality rate that you are seeing is a reflection of our ability to do widespread testing,” she said during the Ministry of Health’s first virtual press conference. “We are somewhat limited at this time and we’re working on building testing capacity. Additionally, those cases that did pass away, God rest their souls, they were older in age and had other medical comorbidities such as diabetes and hypertension, obesity and lung problems like asthma. I have no doubt that as we increase our capacity to do testing, we will see that mortality rate balance out. But this is a reflection of the section of the population that we have been able to test – those with moderate and severe manifestations.”
Sands said that 394 people had been tested for COVID-19 in The Bahamas. See full Nassau Guardian article at https://thenassauguardian.com/2020/04/08/grand-bahama-woman-is-latest-death-as-covid-19-cases-climb/
