By RASHAD ROLLE

Tribune Senior Reporter

rrolle@tribunemedia.net

THE Bahamas is ranked 182 out of 184 countries in the COVID-19 recovery index, according to one Global COVID-19 Index (GCI).

The country has been given a score of 17.83 out of 100 indicating that it is “struggling to cope with the crisis and…may need to consider maintaining stringent non-pharmaceutical measures.”

The country received 67.23 on the index’s latest severity index, indicating it “may be overwhelmed by the crisis with a high percentage of infections and resulting deaths per population.”

GCI’s forecast for The Bahamas is that the “situation may improve”.

“The GCI Model indicates that the solution has a small probability of recovery but there is insufficient evidence to suggest that the recovery trend will improve significantly in the near future,” the researchers say.

The recovery index considers active cases per population, recoveries per confirmed case, tests conducted per confirmed case and tests conducted per population. The severity index considers confirmed cases per population and proportionate death rate due to COVID-19.

The index was developed by PEMANDU Associates in collaboration with Malaysia’s Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation and the Sunway Group.

This comes as Dr Sabriquet Pinder-Butler, head of the Consultant Physicians Staff Association, said yesterday that public health facilities are managing as best as they can under the strain of COVID-19.

“We’ve kind of been in strain mode for a little while with the hospitals being over capacity and so everything is pretty much filled up and they’re just trying to make the best with the space situation,” she said. “It’s not just COVID, and that’s what we’re trying to get everyone to understand. We already had challenges with spacing and staffing before COVID.

“With us having additional persons with COVID, that certainly adds to a system that was already trying to make best with what was there. Everything is pretty much at over capacity mode. Once someone goes in, you have someone already waiting for that space. Everyone is trying their best.”

Asked if the situation is manageable, Dr Pinder-Butler said: “Manageable is relative in terms of, if you know this is the hands you are dealt with but you’re still going to try your best, then you manage as best as you can. Things can certainly be much better, but we don’t have an ideal situation in the country.”

The Bahamas has had more than 6,400 confirmed cases of COVID-19. Most of these cases were recorded after July 1, when the country reopened its borders to commercial international travel.

On July 28, the GCI Index ranked The Bahamas last among 184 countries on its COVID-19 recovery index.