By TANYA SMITH-CARTWRIGHT

tsmith-cartwright@tribunemedia.net

HEALTH Minister Renward Wells said he is unsure which brand of COVID-19 vaccine the country will receive from the United States.

Currently, the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine is the only one being offered locally.

“We are not completely sure as to which vaccines we are going to receive,” he said yesterday.

“We are going to receive them on two tracks – one, there is the bi-level track with the United States which means directly country to country. We know that the United States is offering AstraZeneca, Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson, but we are not exactly sure which one of those that they are offering to The Bahamas.

“We are in discussions on that and we should have some word for the Bahamian people very, very soon. We will be receiving those vaccines by the end of the month. The other track is that the United States, as you know, would have donated to the World Health Organization through COVAX Facility and countries around the globe will be getting vaccines via that route.

“I think the US has donated some seven million, I believe, to Latin America and the Caribbean through the COVAX Facility and they are going to be doing it on a per capita population basis. We are expecting that we are going to receive vaccines that route, but we also have in train as well this week, I believe will be getting vaccines from PAHO which is the last of the 100,000 we were supposed to receive of AstraZeneca from PAHO through the COVAX facility which is about some 32,800 doses if I remember correctly.”

Asked about the possibility of health officials moving the curfew in the capital from 10pm to at least midnight, Mr Wells said he is more concerned about hospitalisations than overall numbers. And, he said, there are a number of things weighing on a decision to relax restrictions but acknowledged a recent downward trend in cases.

“The Bahamian people are coming forward again and are seeking to be vaccinated,” he said. “We are always as an administration looking to ease both the economic circumstance and just the overall sense of wellbeing for the Bahamian people. Looking at the numbers, obviously a lot of this is contingent on the level of vaccinations experienced in the country and the downward trend.

“As you see and as you would know that as cases are reduced in country, the measures are always relaxed. So it’s really contingent on the amount of the downward trend that we see and the amount of vaccinations taking place in The Bahamas, then the government will make further decisions on the amount of relaxation of measures that are in place in Cat Island, Andros and the Berry Islands as well as here in New Providence and throughout The Bahamas.

“I won’t talk about the positivity rate. I am more concerned about the hospitalisation. We had a high of overall cases in The Bahamas, I think May 16 through the 22. We had about 370 cases during that week in The Bahamas. Since that, time this last week, I think we had about 120 cases so there is a downward trend.”

He pointed out that the US Centers for Disease Control has reduced the travel advisor to The Bahamas and said this is a good sign of progress for dealing with the pandemic.

Shifting gears a bit, Mr Wells said he did not want to get into a back and forth about the number of vaccinated citizens that would satisfy herd immunity. Recently, former Health Minister Dr Duane Sands said he felt 200,000 more people needed to be vaccinated to achieve herd immunity while Mr Wells, who is not a doctor, had previously estimated 120,000.

“I won’t get in a back and forth over the issue of herd immunity because even the (former) minister himself said the number is extremely illusive,” Mr Wells said. “At the end of the day, we all are scientists … we deal with scientific methods. The scientific method is based on what you find as initial conditions and the assumption you make on those initial conditions and then you arrive at solutions.

“So it will depend on what assumptions he has made and what assumptions I have made. I am not going to get into the back and forth with my colleague on the issue. The reality is we agree on one thing and that is that the more Bahamians are vaccinated, the better it is for this nation because it brings us that much closer to herd immunity.”

Meanwhile the Ministry of Health reported three new COVID cases yesterday which were recorded on Monday, pushing the nation’s total to 12,027.