COVID-19 Cases Still Climbing; 10 New Cases
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The Bahamas Ministry of Health announced 10 more COVID cases on Thursday evening, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 761.
Seven new cases were confirmed in New Providence, 2 in Bimini and 1 in Abaco.
There are three hundred forty-nine confirmed cases are recorded in New Providence, 336 confirmed cases in Grand Bahama, 34 confirmed cases in Bimini, 10 confirmed cases in Moore’s Island, 9 confirmed cases in Great Guana Cay, 9 confirmed cases in the Berry Islands, 6 confirmed cases in Cat Cay, 3 in Cat Island, 3 in Exuma, and 2 confirmed cases in Abaco.
Of the 761 confirmed cases, 654 are active and 91 patients have recovered.
Prime Minister Hubert Minnis said on Monday that national lockdown was necessary because of the exponential increase in cases. Although inconvenient, he said 2-week lockdown is necessary to slow the spread of the virus.
Grand Bahama extended its lockdown on Thursday to 5am Wednesday, August 19th.
The island’s current two-week lockdown, July 23 to August 7, ended Friday morning at 5am.
But Minister of State for Grand Bahama Kwasi Thompson said the extension is needed to control community spread of the COVID-19 pandemic on Grand Bahama, as 336 confirmed cases were recorded for the island as of Wednesday.
This means that Grand Bahama now falls under the same lockdown order as the rest of the country, which went into effect on Tuesday evening.
Thompson said an extension of the lockdown is not something that would have been preferred, but it is “absolutely necessary.”
“We must work together to stop the spread of the virus on Grand Bahama,” he said.
