SUSTAINED TREND: Fourth COVID wave winding down but expert cautions public not to become complacent – EyeWitness News

NASSAU, BAHAMAS While health officials have observed a sustained downward trend of coronavirus cases and hospitalizations over the last three weeks, Director of the National HIV/AIDS and Infectious Disease Programme Dr Nikkiah Forbes indicated yesterday that the behavior of the public will determine whether the trend continues.

For the last several weeks, at least three weeks, weve seen a persistent downward trend, she said.

Cases are reducing significantly, week upon week over the last three weeks, and so, this is significant.

We can absolutely say that cases are trending down.

Hospitalizations are also trending down at this point, and overall, in this wave, we have experienced less deaths than, for example, in the third wave.

Forbes said the trend is not cause for complacency asthe behavior of the public could still impact which direction it heads in.

The trend in cases is very dependent on what we all do individually and collectively and overall in terms of the health system and support for mitigating COVID, the director said.

Asked whether the fourth wave has been shorter than previous waves due to the nature of the omicron variant, Forbes said a combination of the behavior of the public during the holidays and the high transmissibility of omicron played a role.

She pointed out that the spike in infections in early January correlated with the increased social activities and travel over the holiday season two weeks following the season.

Forbes said with the holidays now over and fewer gatherings among fewer people, thats what [will] account for this decline in the numbers.

Additionally, due to the contagious nature of omicron, a lot of people contracted the virus, resulting in infections happening faster and earlier.

When you consider the susceptibility of persons for example, if more persons would have gotten sick earlier, so that could have an impact on the number of cases later on, that the waves could be a bit shorter in terms of omicron, she said.

If we could get a handle on [vaccination], there would be less COVID in the world and less of a chance that these variants would develop.

Dr Nikkiah Forbes

So, a combination of those two factors.

Health experts have said new variants will continue to emerge until the global population is fully vaccinated.

The Bahamas, not dissimilar to several other Caribbean countries in the region, has yet to reach a 50 percent vaccination rate among its population.

As of Saturday, 159,839 people had been fully vaccinated in The Bahamas around 49 percent of those eligible to be vaccinated.

The Bahamas has yet to acquire pediatric vaccines to inoculate children under the age of 12.

If we could get a handle on this, there would be less COVID in the world and less of a chance that these variants would develop, Forbes said, adding that it was critical for everyone to put all efforts into keeping infections low.

The country recorded 29 infections on Sunday, including 26 on New Providence, two on Eleuthera and one on Grand Bahama.

Hospitalizations stood at 65, down from 97 the week before and 137 two weeks ago.

See the rest here:

SUSTAINED TREND: Fourth COVID wave winding down but expert cautions public not to become complacent - EyeWitness News