By KHRISNA RUSSELL

Tribune Chief Reporter

krussell@tribunemedia.net

A TOTAL of 600 people in The Bahamas are being tracked through contact tracing for possible signs or symptoms of COVID-19, a new regional report has said.

While The Bahamas has only 10 reported cases of the virus to date (the latest case being confirmed later on Friday), a Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency situation report released on Friday said there are 761 cases confirmed in 29 countries in the Caribbean region.

The report was disseminated by the government and said “600 contacts being tracked”.

A government spokesperson upon inquiry from The Tribune explained that the information came out of the Ministry of Health’s Surveillance Unit. However, a top Ministry of Health official said it was unsure of the source of the information.

With its confirmed cases, The Bahamas has the fourth highest number of COVID-19 confirmations in the region.

Trinidad and Tobago has 65, Jamaica has 26, and Barbados has 24. The Cayman Islands also has eight confirmed cases.

The increase to nine in the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the country was confirmed on Thursday by Health Minister Dr Duane Sands. Before his announcement, the country’s coronavirus number stood at five.

The four additional cases are all in New Providence.

One of the new COVID-19 patients had a recent travel history, Dr Sands said. The four new cases are at home in isolation and do not need hospital care at this time, he added.

“The most recently four confirmed cases are in New Providence,” he said during a press conference at the Ministry of Health. “Only one had recent travel history and that case had travelled to the Dominican Republic on the 13th of March.

“All of the most recently confirmed four cases are in home isolation and they are being closely monitored by healthcare professionals,” he said. “They do not require hospitalisation at this time.”

His comments came after officials revealed on Tuesday that a woman in Grand Bahama with no recent travel history had tested positive for the infectious disease, becoming the country’s first confirmed case of COVID-19 outside of New Providence. Up to press time, there was only one confirmed case in Grand Bahama.