By KHRISNA RUSSELL

Tribune Chief Reporter

krussell@tribunemedia.net

AS he announced that most businesses in New Providence will be allowed to reopen on August 31, Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis said new COVID-19 data suggests no hard lockdown is needed at this time for the island.

However, Dr Minnis said the lockdown provisions now in place will remain until 5am next Monday in a bid to continue the slow of the deadly virus in the capital.

It was a sharp reversal for Dr Minnis, who just last week announced an immediate seven day near full lockdown for New Providence in response to the COVID-19 crisis - his strongest restrictions yet.

That decision was reversed in less than 24 hours after public outcry.

Asked what warranted the change from then to yesterday, Dr Marceline Dahl-Regis - special advisor to the prime minister - said new data that had just been analysed within the last 48 hours painted a different picture.

According to Dr Dahl-Regis, sifting through the backlog of cases also shaped the decision to reopen on August 31 and a recommendation that residents in Nassau did not need to be severely restricted.

Effective August 31, New Providence restaurants can provide outdoor dining, curbside service, take-away and delivery.

Both the Fish Fry and Potter’s Cay Dock will be allowed to offer curbside, takeaway and delivery. Construction activities and hardware stores will continue as usual while other retailers will be permitted to offer curbside and delivery services.

Dr Minnis also said offices and other businesses will be permitted to operate with physical distancing restrictions.

Individuals will be permitted to exercise outside from 5am to 9am while beaches will also be open for a short window—from 5am to 9am daily.

When asked if he had regrets about imposing the immediate lockdown, Dr Minnis said the data available last week suggested the need for the tough restrictions.

This data showed that in the month of August, there was a 195 percent increase in the number of COVID positive cases, Dr Minnis said.

He said the data also showed there was a 107 percent increase in the number of deaths, with a 337 percent increase in hospitalisations in August.

“…All of that is concerning,” Dr Minnis said yesterday. “…But my concern would have been first and foremost lives. Then we were faced with another situation.

“Individuals would have called me stating they were not given sufficient warning. There was no notice, no preparations etc and I would have been called everything except a child of God.

“Then we had a similar situation and the decision was made to lockdown Grand Bahama and therefore because of the first experience we decided to give the appropriate notice,” he said, referring to the lockdown placed on Grand Bahama nearly five weeks ago.

“We gave the appropriate notice and the data clearly shows that as a result of the mass migration from Grand Bahama, Abaco would have been infected, Baker’s Bay would have been infected, Moore’s Island would have been infected, the Biminis would have been exploded, the Berries would have been exploded and New Providence would have had a second impact not only from the travel to the northern hemisphere but the travel of these individuals into New Providence.

“Therefore recognising what would have happened it was always my intention to prevent such migration and to protect the Family Islands. It was essential to protect the Family Islands because there are older residents and they do not have the infrastructure in healthcare facilities as we do in New Providence.”

Dr Minnis also said: “It was felt that, and it was great debate between ourselves, it was felt that if warning or notice were given (of the New Providence lockdown) then there would be mass migration to the Family Islands by boats even though we would have taken the necessary precautions to try and minimise it hence Acklins would have become infected and Crooked Island.

“Acklins and Crooked Island have still been infected but let’s look at the history. A lockdown on inter-island transportation was being stopped on the 28th of July, hours before that order came in, that order came into effect at 7pm to stop inter-island flights.”

The prime minister said hours before that order came into effect, 157 people left New Providence on a charter flight to Acklins and spread the virus.

“That is how Acklins and Crooked Island became infected. One hundred and 57 people. I call it totally irresponsible knowing that your inter-island flights were being canceled in a matter of hours.”

He said Crooked Island residents also called him on July 28 with similar concerns about domestic travel.

“The rest is history,” he said. “That is how Acklins became infected. That is how Crooked Island became infected and I am advised that individuals are trying to run from those given islands to Mayaguana and if that happens Mayaguana will subsequently become infected.

“So I was thinking first and foremost of saving lives and I was thinking first and foremost of protecting the family islands because I know they have comorbidities.”

For her part, Dr Dahl-Regis also explained how the last 48 hours altered the government’s direction and recommendation to allow businesses to operate in a week’s time.

She said: “I would like to share with you the data that has been given to the government and that might have informed the decisions.

“Two weeks ago we had a very large number of cases. We also had a significant backlog. Within two weeks, we were able to determine in terms of an epidemiological standpoint that we had got to be aggressive with identifying and informing the cases that were positive.

“There was an effort to as quickly as possible not only to inform the cases that they were positive and there were a few hundred but to also identify their contacts.

“Recognising that we could not do this with a paper based system, we were ably assisted by so many and the OPM’s office, the unit of technology, to put in place an electronic platform to document what we were doing to monitor the progress and to revise the number of cases according to the backlog,” Dr Dahl-Regis continued.

“This was a significant effort that required no fewer than 131 persons on a daily basis without stopping and so we were able to present to the government an analysis of the cases and there were a number of corrections as you have heard. Based on those corrections that we have made and again ably assisted by so many we were able to offer them where we were in terms of this wave of the pandemic.

“Unfortunately we were only able to complete this in the last 48 hours and definitely in the last 24 hours and based on that we offered a revised recommendation to the government.”

New Providence was placed under a new lockdown on August 4.