By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

THE Bahamas Hotel and Tourism Association’s (BHTA) president yesterday said he is “praying” more persons become vaccinated at the next available opportunity as it is the “only way to combat COVID spikes”.

Robert Sands, telling Tribune Business that Saturday’s 100 new infections are “concerning” for the tourism industry’s continuing recovery prospects, said he was “anxiously awaiting” the arrival of more COVID-19 vaccines as they represented “the only way out of this pandemic” for The Bahamas and wider world.

With the Government’s COVID emergency powers due to expire in August, the tourism chief said “the lagging pace of vaccinations has made it a much more difficult decision” for the Government on whether it should be completely lifted or some elements retained.

Mr Sands said that while protocols such as mask wearing and social distancing will likely remain, The Bahamas cannot afford any further “retrenchment” of its economy and the Government will have to find a way to “open the economy” safely so that the pandemic’s debilitating impact on the private sector can be eased.

Still, while acknowledging the tourism industry’s concerns over the latest spike in COVID-19 infections, the BHTA president argued that it was too soon to determine if this will become a trend. “I think today’s numbers of 100 are concerning but we have to look at it in terms of a trend,” Mr Sands said.

“One day by itself is not sufficient to make a complete assessment or to begin to draw conclusions that this has become a trend. This is a situation we have to monitor over the next couple of days. I hope this is a one-off situation, but if not we have to ensure the protocols put in place are at least adhered to as much as possible so it does not get out of hand. This is something we have to pay close attention to over the next couple of weeks.”

However, the makings of a trend were in place prior to Saturday’s 100 new COVID-19 cases, which represented the highest daily figure since October last year. From 61 new cases on Wednesday, The Bahamas recorded a further 69 on Thursday and 62 on Friday.

A total of 401 new COVID-19 cases were recorded between July 11 and July 17, a 41 percent increase on the week prior. And the public healthcare system is coming under increasing strain once again, with 76 patients currently hospitalised with the virus, including 13 who are in intensive care.

“The key to all this is that as soon as the country is able to be in possession of additional vaccines, my prayer and call to the population at large is to take advantage of it and get vaccinated because that’s the only way we are going to be able to withstand these erratic bumps in COVID cases in the country,” Mr Sands told Tribune Business.

“I am anxiously awaiting the final tranche of vaccines from COVAX and the vaccines promised by the US government. We are in urgent need of those vaccines. Vaccination is the only way out of this pandemic.”

According to the Government yesterday, some 99,755 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine have been administered to date, including 39,366 second doses.

This still leaves The Bahamas far way from achieving so-called ‘herd immunity’ against COVID-19, which would require between 75-80 percent of its 400,000-strong population to be fully vaccinated. There is also a growing gulf between The Bahamas and its visitor base when it comes to inoculation, with Mr Sands saying “in excess of 75 percent” of tourists are now fully vaccinated.

Increasing COVID-19 infection rates in The Bahamas threaten to throw the tourism industry’s recovery, and that of the wider economy, off course. Besides potentially deterring travellers from coming, they can also result in The Bahamas being downgraded and taken off approved ‘travel destination’ lists by health authorities in key source markets such as the US and UK.

Noting the difficulties caused by differences in COVID-19 protocols between The Bahamas and its major source markets, Mr Sands said rival Caribbean destinations such as the Cayman Islands and British Virgin Islands (BVI) had used their status as UK overseas territories to obtain better access to vaccines than this nation.

Calling on other countries to give The Bahamas better access to vaccines, the BHTA president added that Bahamians “can help ourselves by doing our part in this pandemic, and that is by observing the protocols put in place to enable the recovery to continue”.

Asked whether the COVID emergency powers orders should be allowed to expire next month, Mr Sands suggested that the Government will have to take a balanced approach. “I think the Government has to take into consideration we have elements of the emergency orders that can be lifted, but there will also have to be mandates in terms of basic protocols such as mask wearing and social distancing etc,” he said.

“The debilitating effects on business is now something we have to address and mitigate the impact, but we have to look at the health and welfare of citizens of the Commonwealth. I respect that these are very difficult decisions to make, balancing the economy of the country with health and welfare of the citizens. It’s not an easy decision.

“It would be easier if we had more citizens vaccinated, but with the lagging pace of vaccinations that’s a much more difficult decision to make. We certainly have to find methodologies to safely open the economy because we cannot allow it to go into a retrenched position again.”