coviddeaths

Health officials have reported 14 additional deaths related to COVID-19.

In its daily update, all of the new cases of deaths occurred between August 13^th and 17^th.

All of the deaths were residents of New Providence, except three cases were in Abaco.

The deaths involved nine women and five men, between the ages of thirty-three and eighty-four years.

This latest report is startling as it represents the highest number of deaths recorded in a given report within a span of four days.

Health care workers have decried the overwhelming number of cases in the country as hospitals struggle to care for COVID-19 patients due to the lack of space.

Doctors have admonished Bahamians to get vaccinated to avoid hospitalizations and deaths.

Though not official, doctors speculate that the Delta variant may be in the country due to the high number of infections and deaths. Health workers say they await lab results from 100 samples to determine if the variant is in the Bahamas.

The 14 COVID-19 related deaths:

41 Female Abaco 17th August

69 Female New Providence 16th August

44 Female New Providence 16th August

46 Male New Providence 15th August

59 Female New Providence 15th August

48 Male New Providence 15th August

33 Female New Providence 15th August

71 Male New Providence 15th August

52 Male Abaco 15th August

75 Female New Providence 14th August

44 Female New Providence 14th August

84 Female New Providence 13th August

55 Female Abaco 13th August

63 Male New Providence 13th August

Health officials have reported nine new COVID-19 related deaths on Saturday.

The COVID-19 update released by the Ministry of Health shows that these recent deaths occurred between July 20 and August 3, ranging from age 20 to 74-years-old.

• 20-year-old male of New Providence July 20
• 50-year-old female of New Providence July 20
• 41-year-old male of New Providence July 20
• 54-year-old female of New Providence July 23
• 74-year-old male of New Providence July 29
• 54-year-old female of Eleuthera July 29
• 24-year-old female of New Providence July 29
• 42-year-old male of Berry Island July 29
• 50-year-old female of New Providence August 3

Seven of the deaths occurred in New Providence, one death occurred in The Berry Islands and one was in Eleuthera.

To date, the country has recorded 304 deaths due to the infectious disease. Thirty-five remain under investigation.

This comes as the country battles 118 new cases reported on Sunday–Eighty-five in New Providence; 13 in GB, 6 in Abaco, 13 in Eleuthera, and 1 in Andros.

On Friday, 228 new COVID-19 cases were reported, representing the highest number of cases reported in a single day since the start of the pandemic.

Prime Minister Hubert Minnis is expected to address the nation on Monday at 8 pm in regard to his government’s plans for the current COVID-19 Emergency Order.

Along with a high COVID-19 toll number, health officials are also dealing with an overwhelming number of bodies in the morgue at the Princess Margaret Hospital.

The bodies are crowding the mortuary, awaiting collection by family members and local morticians, to be buried.

Minister of Health Renward Wells and Managing Director at Princess Margaret Hospital said they need the space.

“Some persons are using the morgue at PMH as a storage facility for their deceased loved ones.

“The morgue at PMH continues to be stretched to capacity as a result of the delayed collection of loved ones who have passed.

“Some members of the public are opting to wait until restrictions are lessened to collect the bodies of loved ones,” Wells said.

He encouraged the public to arrange with mortuary companies to retrieve loved ones and advised the local mortuary companies to collect bodies that families have paid to be transported to funeral homes.

What’s the capacity of the facility?

Public Hospital Authority Managing Director Catherine Weech said the facility in New Providence has a capacity for 55 bodies but the facility is presently holding nearly 220 bodies.

In Grand Bahama, she said the storage facility has a capacity of 25, but at times, the facility is holding 50 to 75 bodies.

Weech said the authority has instituted a policy to ensure the COVID-19 deaths are separated from the non-related COVID-19 deaths.

Those bodies are housed in an external cooler at the hospital.

An aged-old problem?

The lack of sufficient space at the mortuary is not a new problem.

Back in 2018, former Minister of Health Duane Sands estimated that the morgue had the capacity for 60 bodies.

He lamented the little space left for the storage of bodies as family members at that time, failed to collect bodies of loved ones.

He told Eyewitness News at the time that Bahamians leave the bodies there because they cannot afford an “elaborate” funeral.

This is not a new problem, but a chronic problem, he admitted. He said the country needs a new morgue.

“The need for a new lab that functions more consistently with the needs and service demands of the country are clear…the viewing facilities are simply antiquated and leave much to be desired.”

Sands also proposed an increase and enforcement of storage fees to encourage undertakers to collect the bodies from the morgue.

“We have not been enforcing storage fees and so it is cheaper for the undertaker to leave the body there until they can bury the person. So they don’t incur the cost of storage,” Sands said.

What you should do?

Wells and Weech are asking families to retrieve the bodies to allow for proper management of bodies that must be housed.

The office is opened weekly and families should contact the Medical Records Department for the release of the bodies from the facility.

Wells said failure by morticians to comply will result in legal storage fees being applied.

Featured photo credit: Medical News Today

As rumours swirl surrounding the death of a marine officer, Chief Medical Officer Dr. Pearl McMillan said three or four deaths are being investigated for COVID-19.

During the COVID-19 Update, Dr. McMillan said health officials face challenges in COVID-19 death classification.

“The difficulty is getting all of the information to determine whether  or not a case that was not outright a COVID-19, fits within that…on the death certificate if COVID19 will be the major cause that contributed to that death.”

The Royal Bahamas Defence Force issued condolences for Leading Mechanic Livingston Pratt, who passed away on Thursday. Now many are speculating that his death was related to COVID-19, as the number of cases among law enforcement officers climb.

Dr. McMillan said three cases in Grand Bahama had to be reviewed by officials and those cases were added to the dashboard for the total coronavirus deaths.

She said a committee is reviewing the contributing factors of the three additional deaths to concretize whether or not they were COVID-19 deaths or COVID19 associated deaths.

Last-week the Ministry of Health confirmed three additional COVID-19 related deaths. The total COVID deaths now stands at 14.