By DENISE MAYCOCK

Tribune Freeport Reporter

dmaycock@tribunemedia.net

AS more COVID-19 cases are recorded daily in Grand Bahama, residents expressed mixed feelings about whether the two-week lockdown should be extended here on the island.

Either way, it is strongly felt that the lockdown has not been effective in slowing the spread of the coronavirus here in the second city, where the number of cases has now soared to 336 as of yesterday.

A government worker - who wanted to remain anonymous – believes that a “complete lockdown” is needed to slow the spread of the virus. “I think we should have a complete lockdown - meaning everything closed: food stores, gas stations, places of employment, especially government offices,” said the concerned resident.

The public servant has concerns regarding the proper sanitising at the government offices. “They don’t have anyone opening the front doors, you have to touch them; they do not have a thermometre check at the front, not until you go into a separate office,” the resident said.

“I just don’t think it is properly sanitised,” complained the resident, who claims that counters are not being wiped down after every customer.

As a result, the resident is suggesting a complete lockdown. The resident believes that those persons who are unable to purchase sufficient food or in desperate need should have food delivered to them by representatives of the Feed Grand Bahama network.

Another resident stated that a lockdown extension would be useless in the absence of consistent testing. “We have issues on three fronts as do many similar nations. First, instead of politicians, we never established a trusted name, face, or voice in medicine or science to dispense the knowledge to everyday people. Secondly, we never centralized information so everybody and anybody can get it at the same time, which leads to confusion,” claims the resident.

The resident noted that in the absence of consistent testing, the lockdown only slows the advance of COVID-19. “However, this is a whole new thing to every Western nation and we don’t yet know fully how to proceed,” the resident said.

Another resident did not think the lockdown should be extended. “The lockdown initially did what it was intended to do, but due to the opening of the border now there is an increase in cases,” explained the resident.

“At some point, we have to transition back in some form of normalcy, and they have to find other ways to combat the increasing problem,” the resident stated.

The resident said that Bahamians have to begin adjusting their day to day living, and implement safety precautions that will become a part of our new way of living.

The prime minister placed GB under a two-week lockdown on July 23. Residents are only allowed to go to food stores, the pharmacy, and gas stations. Hardware stores were allowed to open last Monday to allow residents to prepare for Hurricane Isaias.

Despite nearing the end of the two-week lockdown, Grand Bahama continues to record COVID-19 infections. For days, the island surpassed New Providence in overall case counts until the capital overtook it yesterday. New Providence now has 324 to cases, with Grand Bahama a close second at 336 cases.

Between March and May, the island had recorded only eight positive cases and had a lull in infections for two months until July 1, when travel restrictions were lifted, and many residents travelled to Florida.