By FARRAH JOHNSON

Tribune Staff Reporter

fjohnson@tribunemedia.net

A MOTHER and daughter who contracted COVID-19 while abroad broke quarantine rules when they returned to Grand Bahama and subsequently infected eight other people with the disease, according to Deputy Chief Medical Officer Dr Delon Brennen.

His revelation during a Ministry of Health press conference on Friday renewed concerns about the enforcement of quarantine rules as the country battles a surge of COVID-19 cases.

Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis announced on April 27 that people who breach quarantine rules could be fined $20,000 or be imprisoned for five years.

Yesterday, Assistant Superintendent of Police Audley Peters said to his knowledge no one has been charged with breaking quarantine rules to date.

Dr Brennen said the pair of Grand Bahama residents returned to the country without “necessarily having the appropriate testing” because they were Bahamian residents.

“They were asked and required to quarantine,” he said. “Unfortunately, through contact tracing we were able to find out from them that they had visitors to the house, they then went out into (the) community as well and when we were able to do swabbing within their contacts, we found at least eight other people who had been in contact with them that ended up being positive cases as well.”

“So, we have a cluster of at least 10 people that was related to two people traveling and it is all an issue of us being able to leave the country and return. “

Health officials admitted in April that some people were not obeying quarantine rules. At one point they revealed that 15 people who were supposed to be quarantining went missing and were not retested so that their COVID-19 status could be confirmed. To boost compliance with quarantine requirements the government signed a contract with Hubbcat Solution so that people could be electronically monitored. Hubbcat provides geofencing capabilities and pre-programmes virtual boundaries around the properties of those in quarantine and isolation.

Asked on Friday about the limits of the Hubbcat system and whether the solution is to put more people in government designated facilities, Chief Medical Officer Dr Pearl McMillan said: “Certainly the hubcatt monitoring system, any system is good as it’s full use and certainly we introduced it and we utilised it and as we are now moving into having the need for more and more quarantine, we certainly health monitored the hubcatt. Everytime we put someone in the geofencing, we had health monitors. We are at the point now where we require additional capacity to do the monitoring and certainly we have partnered with (the Ministry of National Security) and we anticipate that what is going to be put in place––and it’s already started––will be what is required for the monitoring of persons in quarantine. It won’t necessarily fully remove the need for having a site where we may need to put persons who are just not able to quarantine at home, but we are managing that whole quarantine activity pretty much utilizing multiple mechanisms, including both a mandatory site where we can put you and enhancing our capacity to do the monitoring through our Hubbcat solution.”

Dr Brennen said over 820 people are currently being monitored through hubbcat.