IN this column last month, we said that as a country we had failed to protect our healthcare system.
The point of imposing restrictions to prevent the spread of COVID-19 was to give our healthcare facilities the best chance possible to deal with the pandemic – and our failure was clear to see in the surge of cases and, in more recent days, the ever increasing number of deaths.
How much we have failed can be seen in the image on our front page today. Three patients under a flimsy tent receiving the oxygen that might save their lives.
No ICU bed, not even a roof.
If we were trying to buy time to ensure we had enough facilities available, we failed to provide them.
If we were trying to keep the case numbers down to stop our healthcare staff from being overwhelmed, we did not do so.
And so here is the legacy of that – people shunted out into the outdoors because there isn’t enough room for them elsewhere.
Today’s dashboard reports another seven deaths, while another 15 people are in intensive care, with 190 in hospital with COVID.
In the video clip, which has circulated on social media, the woman recording the clip can be heard saying: “This is what our health system has come down to, they have the doctors working in tents out in the rain.”
Things are likely to get worse. Election season has brought with it a number of gatherings, whether it is people packed together on buses and trucks or dancing at rally events. That has the potential to spread the virus. The coming weeks will show the impact of that.
Talk of lifting restrictions in the face of this wave is an invitation to even more cases. When stricter restrictions were first put in place, we were experiencing far fewer deaths than we are now.
Is the election taking priority? Certainly, some sections of campaigns seem to be paying little credence to social distancing rules – but ought we to be clamping down more right now to stem the flow of cases?
Or is the scene on our front page what we are prepared to accept? If there are more cases still, where will we go next? We have already run out of buildings to keep patients in, what will we do when we run out of tents? When we run out of oxygen?
There needs to be an increase in the capacity to handle COVID patients – and it has to be a matter of the highest priority.
Those patients out in the cold and the rain deserve better – and with variants of this virus on the loose, that could soon be any one of us.
Comments
birdiestrachan 2 years, 7 months ago
Covid 19 started in the year 2019. The FNM government under PM Minnis is at the bottom of countries that have experienced COVID, Their priorities are not rational.
There should have been beds for more sick people and not sidewalks. a simple example but there are many others.
If only the Editorial Page was bold enough to say PM Minnis has failed the Bahamian people. . But that would be asking too much.
ThisIsOurs 2 years, 7 months ago
Its unbelievable that Dr Minnis and Health Minister Renward Wells are willing to let people die to win an election. While people were breathing their last breaths and being shuffled outside to this tent he was dancing across the stage.
"Party on" while Rome burns. History will be very unkind. There's no prettying it up. They are intentionally ignoring the severity of the crisis
Today Renward Wells helpfully told us that the Health professionals have advised against allowing people in quarantine to vote. Can someone please ask him what the health authorities said about calling an election, campaigning and holding drive in rallies?
ohdrap4 2 years, 7 months ago
Truth be told, if I were a patient, I would rather be outside in the tent, rather than subject to extra viral load.
The lockdown was cruel , innefective, and did nothing to train people to avoid infection by masking, etc... The vaccines have been less effective because of the lack of social distancing.
If the FNM gets in, be prepared for vaccine mandates ir lockdown. Vaccine mandates and passports are already mandatory in Italy, Indonesia ans several other countries.
John 2 years, 7 months ago
And the numbers continue to decline both here and worldwide. But they are not telling you that because they want you to panic and take the vaccine. The third wave is receding. Now they talking about another strain coming from South America. Conspiracy
ibonamy 2 years, 7 months ago
I am fully vaccinated and so is my family, I continue with all protocols and I personally enjoyed the lockdowns. I was able to focus more on my gardening and caught up on my readings. The question i have for this team is. How are we counting the waves of this pandemic. Because i would think that we should consider the complete yearly cycle. meaning all the season as defined by the national geographic society: A season is a period of the year that is distinguished by special climate conditions. The four seasons—spring, summer, fall, and winter—follow one another ..and this will determine the wave. Just a food for thought. We knew this would come, we accepted the lockdown earlier when the cases were few and the death toll was at its lowest. When the lockdown was announced the former MOH was MIA, this was a clear indication off the direction we were heading. The phase " if you don't know where you are going, then any road will take you there" I agree with the PM about a new mandate from the people. We have failed on all fronts and what is so sad, people did not have to die.
by ibonamy
carltonr61 2 years, 7 months ago
A sad and enduring image. While very ill people in the midst of this Covid pandemic were out in the rain with doctors there too trying to save lives Minnis all dressed in political warfare red under advise from his esteemed health professionals Covid team was dancing the pandemic death shuffle showing off to female voters his vitality while their mothers and brothers linger in deaths throes. Then Ingraham puts his seal of approval on the man to carry out WHO/PAHO international global script toward manditory vaccinations with health passes and the destruction of our dollar legal tender for the benefit of digital online no paper cash profiteers. From Britain, USA, New Zealand, Italy, Canada and France the world is fighting back against this architecture of rich nations G7 failed New normal world reset laws in the midst of induced pandemic. The fight is on against Sputnic V, the only true Covid vaccine and the profiteering jabs every six months that niether prevents but also spread Covid according to CDC. Also, global informational warfare is on against covid medication that saves lives and vaccines that simply don't work and require constant re-reasoning along with a litany of science twisters to exist for profit. Three African presidents and one Caribbean president are dead into silence like the fifties war against Communism. The new Communists are anyone attempting to heal Covid without the help of questionable nine month old untested vaccines.
John 2 years, 7 months ago
It appears that people count waves differently but if you look on the map of Covid cases, you can see where the numbers climb, then peak, then come back down. That is considered to be a wave. There may be small spikes and surges but only the major waves are counted. Now if you look on the graph for the number of world cases, you can clearly see three distinct waves and and so that is why they say this is the third wave. But if you look at the far left of the graph, both on the world graph and that for The Bahamians, you can see a smaller, lest distinct hump. This is when the Covid first began and since it was only supposed to be in China at that time ( October thru December 2019), most countries were either not recording Covid cases and or patients were not being diagnosed with having Covid-19. So technically this is the FOURTH WAVE of the virus. And if Covid-19 continues to mimic the 2018 Spanish flu, this may be the final wave. Though the virus may become seasonal and linger into next year. And one must also take into account that this virus had been modified ( some say two viruses combined) and secondly there were no vaccines during the Spanish virus, so will the vaccines cause the virus to behave differently? The vaccines do not destroy or eliminate the virus. They only suppress it. And that is why they are saying people who took the vaccines will eventually need a third booster shot. And that is why Dr Anthony Fauci is saying he doesn’t know what will happen after the third shot. Will there have to be a fourth or fifth? And that is why the vaccines manufacturers are saying it was wrong to try vaccinate everyone. Persons who had the virus and recovered now have natural immunity that doesn’t wear off ( normally) and offers better protection than the vaccines. And these people are necessary to achieve herd immunity. And that is (probably) why most countries that are highly vaccinated are having difficulty seeing their numbers of nee cases decline because the virus mutates and the vaccines become less effective. And whilst they are saying in this country that 99 percent of the people who end up dying or in the hospital are unvaccinated, that number has fallen to below 80 percent in the past few weeks. It’s called breakthrough cases. And it happens even more amongst persons behi have taken a third dose of the vaccine. And since it has been 99% confirmed that this virus was created in a lab (Lying Dr Fauci says it may have been created in a lab, but not the lab in Wuhan, China, where he was funding ‘gain-of-function’ research with US taxpayers money) cannot rule out that the virus is being manipulated. Or that the vaccines have the virus. a At least some of them.
John 2 years, 7 months ago
They are tightening the screws on Anthony Fauci. The only way to get the truth out.
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