By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

The failure to aggressively ramp-up COVID-19 testing "is crippling the Bahamian economy" and its recovery prospects, a former Grand Bahama Port Authority (GBPA) attorney warned yesterday.

Carey Leonard told Tribune Business that The Bahamas will "not get a grip" on the virus and be able to properly re-open its economy until it obtains sufficient testing data to determine how widespread the infection truly is.

He added that the government's seeming inability to expand COVID-19 testing meant the Bahamian economy will incur "more damage", and face a more difficult path to recovery, than nations which implemented this process both early and aggressively.

Revealing that frustration with this issue was "driving me up the wall", Mr Leonard pointed to Iceland as an example that The Bahamas should copy. The north Atlantic nation, with a 364,000-strong population that is similar in size to The Bahamas, found that 50 percent of some 47,000 COVID-19 positive tests came from persons who showed no symptoms of the virus.

Pointing out that it was "much cheaper" to test than "shut the economy down", Mr Leonard also queried why The Bahamas had not followed Bermuda and Barbados' lead in purchasing the necessary kits from the Cayman Islands after the latter made a portion of its supplies available to its Caribbean counterparts.

And he called on the government to provide more "certainty" to Bahamian businesses by giving a timeline for when it is likely to proceed with the various phases in a six-phase plan for re-opening an economy that presently remains locked in "Phase 1A" or ground zero.

While the prime minister on Monday declined to commit to any timetable for the economy's reawakening, Mr Leonard urged the administration to give "definitive" statements so that companies can have confidence the end is in sight and tackle ongoing expenses such as payroll, utilities, rent and debt payments accordingly.

"The failure to test is crippling the economy," Mr Leonard told this newspaper. "It's still very slow until they get the testing going. I look at Iceland, which has a population of 364,000 people. They've done around 47,000 tests. They were able to do that because they started testing early and have tested aggressively.

"They found that 50 percent of COVID-19 cases were people that didn't know they had it. They were able to isolate people early, and found a lot of asymptomatic people early. The problem for us is can we open up unless we have a grip on the COVID-19 situation. We can't open up unless we very aggressively test, and I would expect us to do 40,000 to 50,000 tests.

"As a country involved in tourism our ability to test is important and we have to set it up properly. Quite frankly, had we had testing in place we could have been open earlier."

In contrast to Iceland, Ministry of Health data shows around 1,100 to 1,200 COVID-19 tests had been performed by the start of this week. Testing ramping up over the past weekend as healthcare workers were checked for exposure to the virus following an incident where a Sandilands patient infected several others when they were admitted to Princess Margaret Hospital (PMH).

The data showed that The Bahamas had tested 250 persons out of every 100,000 of its population as at April 25, 2020. While this rate was higher than Jamaica and Trinidad & Tobago's, it lagged the likes of Barbados and Panama who are at 463 and 563, respectively.

Dr Duane Sands, minister of health, admitted The Bahamas was challenged to expand COVID-19 testing to anyone requesting it due to limitations on the availability of testing kits and swabs amid intense global demand/competition for these products and devices.

He added that the country currently possesses some 4,000 RT PCR test kits, which determine whether someone is positive or negative for COVID-19, as well as 1,100 swabs. Dr Sands said The Bahamas was exploring several avenues to expand its swab inventory.

Mr Leonard, meanwhile, said the contrasting experiences of the UK and Germany exposed the price to be paid in human and financial terms if nations "don't get a grip" on how widespread COVID-19 infections were.

He added that Germany, which was aggressive and early with its testing, to-date has suffered 20,000 less deaths than the UK despite both having a similar number of cases. The UK, with a 300 percent higher mortality rate, now faces having to keep its economy shut down for another four to six weeks until it gets on top of COVID-19.

Noting that South Korea and Singapore had also "caught it much earlier" through their focus on testing, Mr Leonard told Tribune Business: "I'm just frustrated. This whole thing about the testing drives me up the wall.

"It's far cheaper to buy test kits than shut your economy down, and you generate more revenue if your economy is open. Why can't we be like Iceland? I would want to know why we've done so few tests. Other countries that have done testing get a much better jump on it and have information that they are able to use to make much better decisions."

The Cayman Islands sold 35,000 test kits to Bermuda, and 20,000 to Barbados, and Mr Leonard questioned why The Bahamas did not seek to purchase a similar amount - especially since they were available at a cost price. "I'm aware of offers made for personal protective equipment (PPE) and test kits that were made to us," he added, declining to give details.

"The longer the Government takes to get a grip on COVID-19, the longer it's going to take us, and the more damage it's going to do to the economy which means it's going to be that much more difficult for the economy to recover.

"Testing is critical. The sooner they get testing, the better the economy will be. The longer they hold back on the testing, the more it's going to damage the economy." While there were signs that the US and some European economies, as well as the airline and cruise ship industries, were attempting to stir into action by the mid-June/early July time slot, Mr Leonard questioned whether The Bahamas - in its present state - "will be ready for them".

"If we haven't done the testing we have a problem," he added. "Other countries have to be satisfied we have COVID-19 under control. If they're not satisfied we cannot open. No matter which way you look at it, it comes back to testing, testing and testing again. It's the only way we're going to open the economy.

"There's no reason why we can't. I can't see why we cannot test certain islands, set up protocols and get those economies moving and start the recovery. Give us some confidence that we can open up again. There's got to be some timelines put in. The Government can put in timelines saying they're subject to change depending on what they find.

"They've got to make definitive statements. Businesses like certainty. If they move the timeline, at least we know we're headed in the right direction. I've abided like everyone else with the lockdown, but now I feel like we're wasting time by being locked down and being kept in this situation because they've not tested. We've got to get a move on."