By RASHAD ROLLE

Tribune Staff Reporter

rrolle@tribunemedia.net

NEARLY four weeks after Kimberly Johnson-Rolle became the country’s first COVID-19 death, her sister became one of Bimini’s latest confirmed COVID-19 cases on Saturday, a reality that has shocked but not shaken the resolve of the 58-year-old.

Many would be deflated to catch the potentially deadly virus weeks after losing a loved one to the same disease, but Brenda Edgecombe is approaching life serenely, consuming scripture and isolating herself from her husband who tested negative for the virus last week.

“When (Kimberly) first died it was really, really hard because we just assumed once we got her off the island that she would receive medical care and would be fine,” she said yesterday. “But right now I’m just taking it one day at a time and asking God to grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change and the courage to change the things that I can.”

Mrs Edgecombe is one of five people in Bimini who were confirmed to have COVID-19 on Saturday. The other four, The Tribune understands, all live in the household of the elderly couple that tested positive for the virus early last week. In addition, all eight of Bimini’s confirmed cases attend the same church, Gateway Ministries, which hosted a well-attended funeral days before Mrs Johnson-Rolle’s death last month.

Yesterday, Deputy Chief Medical Officer Dr Delon Brennen confirmed that a number of funerals that took place at the church, in addition to various social events, are a focus of investigation for the surveillance team of the Ministry of Health. He said officials tested 40 people on Bimini last week and are looking to do additional testing and contract tracing exercises.

Mrs Johnson-Rolle’s death sparked concerns about the readiness of Family Islands for COVID-19 after it took some 24-hours to get her from Bimini, where she began experiencing respiratory distress, to New Providence, where she died soon after arrival.

Officials have said the lack of an isolation chamber to transport her contributed to the delay. Several of these chambers are now in the country.

“We’ve solidified our transport mechanisms for the island so if people do have symptoms and the possibility of them deteriorating quickly is there we will move them out of the island sooner rather than later,” Dr Brennen said yesterday.

Mrs Edgecombe said she saw her sister last on Sunday, March 29, a day before she died.

“She was sitting in her living room on the couch when I went there and she was saying she was feeling much better. My interaction with her just involved going and sitting and talking with her,” she recalled.

The simplicity of their interaction has left Mrs Edgecombe perplexed by her positive diagnosis. She said her sister returned to Bimini in March after visiting Florida with her children and grandchildren, yet among all of the deceased’s close relatives, about 17 of whom were tested on Thursday, only she has tested positive for the virus, she said.

“There’s so much about this virus that is unknown I feel. According to all the information that has been released about the possibility of contracting it, (Kimberly’s) children and husband were interacting with her more and taking care of her and I wasn’t, so how is it that only I have the virus?” she asked.

“It’s strange to me. It’s all just mixed up. If they surmise she got it on that trip, it was her, her daughter and three grandchildren with her and when she came back she had the flu, but I’m the one now with it.”

When Mrs Johnson-Rolle died, her close relatives were told to go into quarantine. They were not tested, a fact that has disappointed some of them and other residents of Bimini.

Although many COVID-19 cases are believed to be asymptomatic, the government’s policy has been to test people in quarantine only if they have symptoms.

Last week Dr Merceline Dahl-Regis, coordinator of the government’s COVID-19 response, said this is an issue her team has wrestled with.

“We had a real concern when we had restrictions on the resources of swabs,” she said at a press conference. “We agreed to follow these cases very closely and now that we are in a better position with resources, we will certainly revert to testing those who have completed 14 days of quarantine.”

Meanwhile, Mrs Edgecombe said she has no symptoms and “feels fine.” Fortunately for residents of Bimini, she said she did not venture amongst people after her initial quarantine period ended more than a week ago.

Her positive test came back more than a week after her quarantine period ended.

“I stayed at home and was in my yard and I walked on the beach,” she said, “There’s nowhere here to go and my son did the shopping for me. Everyone, once they hear COVID, it’s almost as if they are afraid to be around me. You could see the looks and so I just drove in my car and went to the beach.”

She said her greatest concern now is how long it will take until she is declared free of the virus.

She plans to use her time in isolation reading the bible and a prayer book, she said, and will talk through video to her husband, who is isolating from her downstairs in their home.

Until health officials permit otherwise, the closest contact the pair will have will occur when he puts items for her in front of her bedroom door, she said.

Up to press time, there were 80 confirmed COVID-19 cases in the country after two more were announced yesterday.