This is most definitely not the flu. As others have said, the strain on the health system due to COVID is extreme. The flu does not result in healthcare workers having to choose who lives and who dies due to a shortage of ventilators. The flu does not result in others dying from things li they could have potentially survived like heart attacks if only there had been enough medical resources and staff to treat them. And yes, our hospitals are overrun. My husband tested positive for COVID almost 2 weeks ago. We contacted the COVID hotline to see what our options would be if his condition should significantly worsened and we were informed that he would have to manage from home because there were no hospital beds available in the local hospitals.

Another reason why COVID is not the flu is that research has shown that people who have experienced even mild cases of COVID have been left with permanent damage to the heart, brain, lungs, liver, and kidneys:

https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/07…

Thank you, TalRussell

My husband tested positive last Friday and we still have not received a call from the Health Department to contract trace him. There's no way the government will be able to get this virus under control if they don't dramatically increase testing and tracing.

This is what's on people's minds as a pandemic rages out of control? You've got to be kidding me.

Tourism is not coming back this year. The virus is out of control both here and in the U.S. and it will only get worse as we head into winter. The government needs to get serious about testing and contract tracing. My husband tested positive for COVID on Friday and we haven't heard from the Department of Health yet. We called the COVID hotline and were told that he will have to manage from home because there are no hospital beds. I think we're way past saying the situation is "not ideal," Mr. D'Aguilar.

The thing with COVID is it's not just about deaths from the disease itself. The overflow of COVID patients will cause others with non-COVID health conditions to lose out on proper care. There is also ample evidence that surviving COVID results in a myriad of serious health problems like damage to the heart, lungs, and kidneys that will overwhelm the health system for a very long time and kill people in the long-term. And if you think tourists are going to flock here when the virus is out of control, I have a bridge I can sell you. Natalee Holloway went missing in Aruba and American media was saturated with stories about whether it was safe to travel to Aruba. More recently, the Dominican Republic's tourism industry took a huge hit in 2019 when a couple of Americans died under seemingly mysterious circumstances at a couple of all-inclusive resorts. Despite the fact it was determined that nothing sinister had happened to them, the media coverage about whether it was safe to travel to the DR and there was a sharp decline in tourism. Now imagine the media coverage and the damage to the Bahamas's reputation as a tourist spot if an American or two dies from COVID here in one of our overcrowded hospitals. The major resorts here were smart enough to realize that opening up now is foolish. One outbreak in there property would be enough to kill business for a long time.

Lockdowns do work. Look at Thailand for example. It's a country of nearly 70 million people, yet compared to the Bahamas, it has fewer cases of the virus overall as well as fewer cases of death. The number of COVID cases in the country was under control for months until Minnis and others in the government prematurely opened the border on July 1st. At the time, you could have a 10-day old test result and come here. While it is true that some Bahamians have not taken the virus seriously enough and have continued to be reckless by hosting parties and the like, one can't ignore the toll that opening the borders has taken. And now the government wants to pretend like everything is fine and fully open back up to tourism in a month despite the fact that cases are surging. As long as the virus is out of control and our hospitals are filled to capacity, tourism will not come back. All it will take to taint the nation's image is one American tourist dying here because they couldn't get proper care in a crowded hospital.

Is it any surprise that we're having this spike in cases and deaths 2 weeks (the incubation period of the virus) after the PM decided to adopt the Trump-esque policy of pretending the virus doesn't exist? Maybe our new tourism slogan can be "Come vacation in place at one of our overflowing hospitals or morgues."

Absolutely agree. Thinking that we can reopen to tourism next month is pure fantasy. The morgue is at quadruple capacity, the hospitals are stretched to their limits, and a high number of our healthcare workers have been infected. And we haven't even hit the 2-week mark yet from when Minnis announced the easing of restrictions. Expect cases to begin to surge in the next few days.

We haven't hit the 2-week mark yet from the date when restrictions were eased. There will be a surge in cases.