Bahamas News
Bahamas announces AstraZeneca coming in time for Valentine’s, perhaps
#Nassau, The Bahamas – February 2, 2021 – Right around Valentine’s Day is when The Bahamas should begin receiving its first allotment of the Covid-19 vaccine; but the latest data on the brand poised for delivery to The Bahamas – Oxford/AstraZeneca – is recommended for only people under 65-years of age.
A statement from the Ministry of Health in The Bahamas explained: “COVAX, a coalition led by the World Health Organization (WHO) and Gavi (Vaccine Alliance), informed Bahamian health authorities that The Bahamas could receive 100,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine, starting the second half of February through the second quarter of 2021.”
The dispatch is enough for 40,000 residents of The Bahamas and the plan is to get frontline health care workers that shot in the arm first. Experts say the jab will arm them against the potential ravages of Covid19 which has killed 176 people across the archipelago.
As many as 72 health care workers in The Bahamas had been infected with the coronavirus up to September 2020; there have also been a concerning number of deaths of medical staff to the contagion.
The Bahamas Government was among the countries which committed $2 million for enough vaccines to inoculate around 20 percent of the population. In January, the Vaccination Strategy was unveiled.
Now, the WHO’s consortium has come through it seems, for The Bahamas, home to 400,000 people.
“The Government of The Bahamas has received formal notification from COVAX of the estimated COVID-19 vaccine dose allocation for the first phase of delivery to The Bahamas. The AstraZeneca vaccine has received Emergency Use Listing (EUL) approval from WHO.”
The announcement comes amidst growing skepticism about taking any of the vaccines and just as France discourages the double-dose vaccine from being administered to anyone under 65-year- old, citing a lack of research to support effectiveness.
Still, the Oxford/Astrazeneca vaccine is approved by the World Health Organization (WHO) and EU and has an efficacy of 76 percent without the second booster shot; people are protected from 22 days after the jab. The effectiveness of this brand increases to 82.4 percent once patients have had the second jab. The shots should be within three months.
Bahamians will learn more when the National COVID-19 Vaccine Consultative Committee holds a press conference on Thursday 4 February 2021 at 5pm.
Dana Malcolm
Staff Writer
#TheBahamas, March 17, 2023 – The FBI is investigating a woman’s ‘suspicious’ death on a Carnival Cruise ship in February. The unnamed woman and her husband boarded the Carnival Sunshine on February 27th, for a trip to the Bahamas, but she was dead before they arrived in the port in The Bahamas. 
The FBI said Carnival’s team had administered life saving measures when the woman was reported unresponsive, but they were unsuccessful. The body and the woman’s husband were released to the Bahamian authorities when the cruise arrived in the country.
In a statement shared with US media houses, Carnival Cruises claimed the death has been a natural one. The Nassau Guardian said a source told them the police findings had concurred with that assessment saying it was a “normal sudden death of a tourist who wasn’t feeling well.”
The FBI was waiting for the cruise and when it got back to South Carolina on March 4th, they immediately boarded and began to investigate the room based on ‘evidence of a crime.’ The FBI also searched the couple’s car.
No updates have been shared to contradict the currently established cause of death.
Dana Malcolm
Staff Writer
#TheBahamas, March 17, 2023 – “If you don’t like it, go to another beach!” Is what Aaron John, an Education Officer from The Bahamas National Trust jokingly tells our news team about sargassum blooms; his quip, motivated by the necessity of nature when pit against the notion that there is a real threat when the stinky seaweed makes its annual appearance.
John can admit, he says, that Sargassum isn’t very pretty but life isn’t all about aesthetics and in this instance that ugly patch serves a purpose.
“We love our sandy beaches, but in order to keep them we need Sargassum. When storms come, they wash away all the sand off the beach but sargassum acts as a mulch to protect the sand from water erosion. It doesn’t look good, it
doesn’t feel good but we need it.”
He said it also provides a habitat for small crustaceans, crabs, and insects that are all necessary to our ecosystem and islanders have found use for the weed.
“Historically, (in The Bahamas) we have been using sargassum as fertilizer, especially in the family Islands as far back as I know,” he said. “Birds don’t go on the beach unless there is Sargassum and what do they do? they feed – it’s beautiful.”
He encouraged residents to just leave it be if they came across it.
Sargassum isn’t harmful to humans, except for people with respiratory issues who may find the rotten egg smell triggers asthma. Despite this, it’s not advisable to walk through the weeds which may hide sharp rocks and bottles or vulnerable animals.
Experts say Sargassum blooms began to increase in size around 2011 and have continued to get bigger and bigger since. This year‘s bloom is around 5000 miles long and 300 miles wide and visible from space.
“I know it’s not a general outlook, but I would like to change the perspective on sargassum,” John said, pointing out The Bahamas National Trust is actively working to decrease alarm over the less worrisome events like sargassum as it raises the profile on the environmentally devastating.
Dana Malcolm
Staff Writer
#TurksandCaicos, March 17, 2023 – The Turks and Caicos’ Bahamas Diaspora Office is moving closer and closer to opening day, following the Cabinet’s approval for the signing of a lease agreement.
The lease will be signed with FINCEN ltd in the Bahamas. Several weeks ago, Arlington Musgrove, Minister of Immigration confirmed to our news team that the location had been found and was being finalized; now a lease is
approved at the Cabinet level.
The interest in the TCI from TC Bahamians was evident in the diaspora meetings held in early February. The two meetings held in Nassau and Grand Bahama were completely full and over-subscribed by hundreds.
It’s interest which the Government hopes will translate to real life population growth, bolstering the local population before the native population ‘goes extinct’.
The Opposition PDM is on the record with what it feels is a far more viable solution to a dwindling native population; seek out the country’s own citizens and bring them back home.
Cabinet did not state when the office will open.
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