Bahamas News
Mass Vaccinations started in The Bahamas
#TheBahamas, May 28, 2021 – While The Bahamas has managed to get through 50,000 shots or 58 percent of its Covid-19 vaccines with first jabs administered, second shots are way down, barely past 6,000 hence the shift to mass vaccinations which are now happening at sites around the country.
The data came on Sunday when Dr. Merceline Dahl Regis, special health advisor to the Prime Minister joined him for a national update.
“We have an new opportunity to manage this Covid-19 pandemic… as of Friday, the 21st of May, a total of 50,242 doses of the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine had been administered to Bahamians and residents on NP, Grand Bahamas and throughout the Family islands. The total number of doses include: 44,226 first doses and 6,016 second doses. Four thousand eight hundred and 93 of the second doses had been administered in New Providence and 1,123 second doses in Grand Bahama,” said Dr. Dahl-Regis in her presentation carried live on television and social media.
Dr. Dahl Regis, explains the committee managing the roll out is pleased with the process and over the coming days, some 11,000 shots are expected to be given as The Bahamas works though its 87,200 doses of the AstraZeneca Vaccine.
“Following a successful roll out in the Family Islands last month we expect to start administering second doses in the islands during the month of June in accordance with the recommended 8 to 12 week spacing between doses. As you can see from the dashboard, first doses of the vaccine have been administered on a total of 14 Family Islands and cays.”
Nine weeks into vaccinations, The Bahamas, through the COVAX facility is expected to get more vaccines. The shots, said Dr Dahl Regis, are working to reduce infections and chronic cases.
“We are fortunate to have received COVID-19 vaccines when there is a worldwide shortage. To date, The Bahamas has received 87,200 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine. This includes 20,000 doses from the Government of India and 67,200 doses, pre-paid, through the COVAX Facility with the assistance of the Pan-American Health Organization and Inter-American Development Bank. The Bahamas is also expected to receive an additional 33,600 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine through the COVAX Facility by the end of this month,” she said.
Taking the vaccine has been highest among the retired and unemployed; health care, government workers, uniformed branches, domestic and construction workers fall somewhere in the middle of the uptake chart produced by the Ministry and Health and agriculture sector workers have been least administered the vaccine.
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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