By RASHAD ROLLE

Tribune Senior Reporter

rrolle@tribunemedia.net

PRIME Minister Dr Hubert Minnis announced yesterday the daily curfew in Andros, the Berry Islands and Cat Island will be 8pm to 5am starting today out of concern for the COVID-19 situation on those islands.

“Health teams are headed to these islands for outbreak investigations and vaccination teams will also be deployed to these islands,” he said.

“Any other additional measures will be announced depending on the findings of the investigation team and these recommendations will be made in the coming week.”

Dr Minnis said changes will be made to Grand Bahama’s daily curfew soon as the island “appears to be turning a corner”.

His comments came during a debate in the House of Assembly yesterday on a resolution to extend the country’s state of emergency and emergency powers order.

Governor General Sir Cornelius Smith declared another state of emergency for the country that took effect on May 14, citing low vaccination numbers and the third wave of cases in New Providence and Grand Bahama.

The question of whether the government would declare another state of emergency or implement a new statutory framework had hovered over the country as the deadline for the end of the previous state of emergency neared.

Dr Minnis said yesterday: “When the time is appropriate, guided by our public health experts, we will move to a new regime outside the current emergency measures. That time is closer than many realise. Common sense public health rules will remain. However, this regime will be, in time, phased out.”

Dr Minnis praised his administration’s handling of the pandemic.

“We issued out $32.5 million for food assistance to ensure that all of our people were well fed,” he said. “We issued out $44 million to private sector businesses to ensure that staff employment was retained, and we issued out about $118 million for unemployment assistance to ensure our people got assistance. We do not have the power to print or to borrow $3.3 billion.”

Dr Minnis and Progressive Liberal Party leader Philip “Brave” Davis repeatedly clashed during the former’s speech. Among other things, they disagreed on whether Mr Davis attended meetings with the government’s task force and whether Mr Davis supported the administration’s vaccination rollout.

After his speech in Parliament, Mr Davis released a statement blaming government incompetence for the rise in COVID-19 cases on Cat Island.

“A small number of Cat Islanders were experiencing symptoms and took COVID tests,” he said.

“They quarantined as they awaited their results. As you know, quarantine is not easy for those who need to take care of their families or find a way to earn a living during this economic crisis. But they did it, as so many Bahamians have over these long months.

“What happened next is hard to believe: the government sent back the wrong test results, showing that everyone in the group was negative. So they ended their quarantine. A few days later the mistake was revealed – some in the group were in fact positive. But by then it was too late. Subsequent testing indicated that out of a group of 23 people, 17 of them were COVID positive. That’s an off-the-charts 73 percent positive rate.

“Nearly a year and a half into this pandemic, how can this kind of mistake happen? The system and protocols should make it impossible for the wrong test results to be given on a whole batch of tests. This is basic. Giving people accurate results is a matter of life and death.”