By LEANDRA ROLLE

Tribune Staff Reporter

lrolle@tribunemedia.net

HEALTH and Wellness Minister Dr Michael Darville has made a strong appeal for better adherence to COVID-19 protocols, noting concern about the lack of compliance to health measures at Independence celebrations.

“From some of the social media sites that I’ve seen, there was quite a bit of people at events without the appropriate masks,” Dr Darville said ahead of yesterday’s Cabinet meeting yesterday.

“For me, we are once again pleading to the Bahamian people that COVID is still in our country. The cases are still of concern and it’s important for us to execute the proper protocols to ensure that we eliminate or minimize the potential of spread and prevent clusters of infection in the country.”

His plea came after thousands of Bahamians flocked to Bay Street to celebrate the return of the people’s Junkanoo rush over the weekend after a two-year hiatus due to the pandemic.

While mask wearing is not required in outdoor settings, people are still advised to socially distance at least three feet between those who are not of the same household.

However, little to no social distancing was seen in some instances at the celebratory parade.

Asked yesterday if the government was considering tightening restrictions on gatherings in view of what took place recently, the minister said health officials have not recommended additional restrictions at this time.

“We meet every Wednesday to discuss the challenges that we face,” he said. “We look at the numbers and, of course, COVID is very fluid. There’s always the possibility that you may have to tighten certain restrictions, but I can say as of today, that is not the intent of the Ministry of Health and Wellness, but with that being said, things can change.”

“We had a lot of independence celebrations over the holidays. I believe that from the videos that I’m seeing, some of the mask mandates and rules and regulations were not completely adhered to.”

“That can create some potential spikes. The outcomes, we will make the final determination of what needs to be done, but our job is to protect Bahamians’ wellbeing and try to minimise the risk of spread and eliminate and reduce the possibility of clusters of COVID-19 infections.”

Dr Darville also explained that what was seen at the Independence junkanoo parade this year will not take place at the Boxing Day and New Year’s Day parades, which will be more structured.

“Well, what’s different with this parade is this was the people’s junkanoo parade. There were no barriers. There was nothing really in place. It was really individuals just having fun,” he said. “With our parades that come in, Christmas and New Year’s, it’s properly structured.”

“We have seating capacity, barricades and we’re looking at it because if the cases in the country begin to rise, we would have to execute some additional protocols and let’s hope and pray that we hold where we are today and that we don’t see these heavy spikes of cases coming into the hospital that require ICU care, but in the event that our Junkanoo celebrations in the Christmas and New Year’s need additional protocols, we will make those recommendations and work very closely with the Ministry of National Security and our COVID police to make sure that we’re able to adhere a bit more to the rules and regulations that are laid down by the ministry. But I want to make it clear that it’s not the Ministry of Health that’s responsible for enforcing the rules. We make the rules.”

When asked to respond to concerns about lack of COVID enforcement at this weekend’s parade, National Security Minister Wayne Munroe insisted that the unit responsible for policing COVID rules was still active and carrying out their duties.

“The COVID enforcement unit is still active,” he said. “They’re still funded. I think that outdoor events, there is no mask mandate. The social distancing matters are to be a matter for COVID enforcement. I’ve seen personally only the video of a stabbing and there was curiously, social distancing for that and that should be because of what was happening.

“But the COVID enforcement unit is still active. I received reports from assistant Commissioner of Police Dames at least two or three times a week about their activities.”

As of July 10, there were 526 active COVID cases in the country with 48 people in hospital with the disease.

Dr Darville said officials have planned “emergency assistance for our facilities in the event that things get even more out of control”.