By RASHAD ROLLE

Tribune Senior Reporter

rrolle@tribunemedia.net 

THE Bahamas recorded five additional COVID-19 deaths and 93 newly confirmed cases of the virus on Friday. 

There were 63 new cases on New Providence, 19 on Grand Bahama, two on Inagua, one on Berry Islands, one on Abaco and one on Acklins, with location of six cases classified as pending. 

Health officials acknowledge that there is a significant backlog of COVID-19 samples waiting to be tested and it is unclear how old the samples of the newly confirmed cases are. 

As for the deaths, the Ministry of Health said in a statement: “During the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, which spanned from mid-March to late June 2020, there were eleven deaths - seven males and four females. Eight of these deaths occurred in New Providence, two in Grand Bahama and one in Bimini. During that time the case fatality rate was set at 10.57 percent. The case fatality rate is a measure of the deadliness of a disease. It is calculated by dividing the number of cases that have died from COVID-19 by the total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases. During the first wave, the case fatality rate for The Bahamas appeared to be higher than many other countries in the region.”

For this second wave, the first two deaths were recorded on 30 July 2020. Since then there have been sixteen deaths on record within the space of seven weeks. The case fatality rate now stands at 1.58 percent. Although the number of deaths at this time is somewhat comparable to the first wave, The Bahamas has experienced many more confirmed COVID-19 cases during the second wave. 
“Today, for the first time, there are five deaths reported in one day. Four of these deaths are considered COVID-19 related and one of the deaths is considered a non-COVID-19 related death. A COVID-19 death is someone who has died as a direct result of COVID-19, and a non-COVID-19 death is someone who died because of another health condition even though they may have tested positive for COVID-19.
The deaths include a New Providence woman, a 71-year-old New Providence woman, a 54-year-old Abaco woman and a 45-year-old Eleuthera man. 
The Ministry of Health did not say when the people died. Chief Medical Officer Dr Pearl McMillian said at a press conference last week that as many as eight deaths were being investigated as potentially COVID-19 related at that time. 

The Ministry of Health said they will host a press conference on Monday after not hosting one this week.