By EARYEL BOWLEG

Tribune Staff Reporter

ebowleg@tribunemedia.net

AS health officials are dealing with COVID-19 clusters in some Family Islands, a Pan American Health Organization incident manager pointed to ways to deal with this issue.

Dr Sylvain Aldighieri highlighted that early detection and control is essential.

“Testing should be available to all symptomatic cases and when possible to contacts,” he said during a PAHO virtual briefing.

“All cases should (isolate) and contacts should quarantine. Contact tracing should be done when cases are identified, so clusters could be identified and shutdown. Vaccination should be encouraged and should be accessible to all eligible people according to… regulation,” he said yesterday.

“So you see at this point all the importance on the primary healthcare network, including in remote islands of The Bahamas…but in addition adherence to public health social measures, should be maintained to break transmission to stop the spread with the use of masks, hand washing, physical distancing and avoid crowded and poorly ventilated places.

“What we know from the reports, regular reports from the Ministry of Health of The Bahamas, is that they are actually implementing this action already and the ministry has expanded the testing thanks to the use of antigen rapid testing and rolling (out) very strict and organised contact tracing activities.”

The Ministry of Health and Wellness previously announced the government’s free COVID-19 testing programme has been launched as a pilot initiative in islands most at risk for spread of the virus, with Inagua being the first island.

Health Minister Dr Michael Darville said in the past that the “days of lockdowns are pretty much behind us”.

“Every country has to manage COVID and we need to improve the way we are managing COVID here with new techniques and new things coming out of our toolbox,” he said.

Meanwhile, it was reported through international media that a US Food and Drug Administration advisory committee has recommended a lower dose of the Pfizer and BioNTech COVID-19 for children ages 5-11. The FDA is now considering the recommendation.

Dr Jarbas Barbosa, assistant director of PAHO, noted that the authorisation process for a vaccine starts when a manufacturer requests the regulatory authority with a country or WHO authorisation for use at a specific age, but argued “this is just not a bureaucratic request”.

All of the data has to be provided so as to verify that tests and trials were conducted for that age and that the vaccine was safe and efficacious for that age group.

He added: “In the US, Pfizer has already requested the FDA, that is the regulatory authority of the United States, authorisation for administration in children. The panel has already presented a recommendation and the final decision is pending by FDA and CDC to administer in children. This is validated in the US, so in each country producers are asking the regulatory authorities to consider their data, their clinical trials and the countries will be implementing this and also implement recommendations for use in their own country.”

“This is a sovereign decision of a country that we cannot support or criticise. This is a sovereign decision. The country has the information and makes their own decision. At PAHO we follow WHO recommendations as well as recommendations for the use of vaccines by WHO,” he said.