Nassau, Bahamas:  The Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA), in collaboration with The Bahamas Ministry of Health and Wellness, conducted a mass gathering (MG) risk assessment and implemented the MG event-based surveillance for the country’s upcoming annual Junkanoo Festival[1], and other upcoming mass gathering events.

Mass gatherings can pose increased public health risks and challenges for the host community.  In light of this, CARPHA conducted a training workshop to strengthen The Bahamas’ capacity to identify and respond to potential threats, in “real time”, during the festival.  The MG surveillance training was carried out using the novel, electronic, real time, MG surveillance module, developed by CARPHA and successfully utilised in Caribbean nations, during the recently concluded International Cricket Council (ICC) T20 World Cup.

During the launch of the workshop, The Honourable Dr Michael Darville, Minister of Health and Wellness reaffirmed his Ministry’s commitment to implementing proactive surveillance to reduce the risk of disease spread within the population, as well as the significant number of visitors on the islands. Minister Darville acknowledged the “complexities of 12 million visitors coming into a population of 450 thousand” annually and the need to ensure robust and resilient public health systems for the continued economic growth of the country. The Minister also endorsed CARPHA as a key public health partner, saying that the Agency is “a world recognised institution with high-level professionals and leads in many public health programmes especially in tourism”.

Dr Lisa Indar, Ad Interim Executive Director, in her remarks explained the need for elevated surveillance and indicated, “Mass gathering events such as junkanoo, carnival and cricket in the Caribbean are unique and key cultural and economic pillars for all CARPHA Member States (CMS) that draw large numbers of visitors from around the world”.  She added, “visitors no longer just want to be happy, they want to be happy and healthy”.

Dr Indar also spoke about the relevance and benefits of mass gathering surveillance to the overall public health landscape and underpinned the need to ramp-up and utilise the available electronic surveillance tools that will facilitate rapid identification and response to public health threats emerging from mass gathering events.

The CARPHA team presented  Minister Darville with three tablets to facilitate real-time field data entry during the Junkanoo Festival and other mass gathering events throughout the year.  The capacity built from the Junkanoo risk assessment and MG training will be used by The Bahamas’ national planning and coordination team to guide them in developing and implementing relevant risk mitigation strategies and interventions to reduce the festival’s current risks.

This mission was supported through CARPHA’s Pandemic Fund project, which has the core objective of supporting the reduction of public health impact of pandemics in the Caribbean of which mass gatherings pose an ever-present risk.

The launch of the training workshop took place on Thursday 21st November 2024 in The Bahamas.  Attendees included The Honourable Dr Michael Darville, Minister of Health and Wellness, Dr Phillip Swann, Acting Director of the Department of Public Health, Mrs. Coral Miller, Deputy Permanent Secretary Ministry of Health and Wellness, Ms. Brenda Colebrooke, Senior Under Secretary Ministry of Health and Wellness and Dr Felicia Greenslade, Officer-in-Charge of the Surveillance Unit. The CARPHA team comprised Dr Lisa Indar, Ad Interim Executive Director, Mr. Keston Daniel, Coordinator, Visitor-based Surveillance and Mr. Mohamed Elsherbiny, Senior Technical Advisor.

About the Pandemic Fund Project:

The Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA), the sole public health agency for the Caribbean region, is the Executing Agency for the Pandemic Fund (PF) Project: RG-T4387, with the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) as the Implementing Entity. The goal of this Project, which spans from 2024 to 2026, is to reduce the public health impact of pandemics in the Caribbean through prevention, preparedness, and response (PPR).  The objective is to support the reduction of the public health impact of pandemics in the Caribbean by building pandemic PPR surveillance and early warning systems, laboratory systems and workforce capacity, regionally at CARPHA and at country levels. This will reduce the transboundary spread of infectious diseases and improve regional and global health security. CARPHA is the beneficiary of the PF project and CARPHA Member States are the participants.

The PF was approved at the highest level by the Council for Human and Social Development, as well as by CARPHA’s Executive Board and other stakeholders, including Chief Medical Officers. This is a regional 3-year project (2024-2026). The public signing of Technical Cooperation Agreement to implement the project was on December 14, 2023.

 About the CARPHA Electronic Mass Gathering (MG) Surveillance Module:

The MG surveillance module is a product of the CARPHA’s Tourism and Health Program (THP), one of the Agency’s innovative programmes that addresses health, food safety and environmental sanitation (HSE) threats impacting sustainable tourism in the Caribbean through real-time, early warning and response surveillance systems, guidelines, capacity building, HSE standards, policy, advocacy and partnerships.

In 2024, this portfolio was expanded to included mass gathering surveillance given the elevated public health risk these events pose to regional health security. The THP aims to strengthen countries’ capacity to prepare for and respond to public health threats, thereby improving citizen and visitor health, tourism resilience, economic sustainability and the event itself.

With the success of MG surveillance during the ICC T20 World Cup and the endorsement of this electronic system by Ministers of Health in the Region, through the Council of Human and Social Development-Health, The Bahamas recognised the system’s high value and solicited the support of CARPHA to implement and build capacity in MG surveillance for its annual Junkanoo Festival.

The Bahamas, December 9, 2024 – In June of 2022, Prime Minister Philip Davis attended the Summit of the Americas, where regional migration was one of the items on the agenda.

During the Summit, countries were asked to sign a declaration on migration, which included language suggesting that countries support and host undocumented migrants.

The Bahamas did not sign this declaration, although 20 countries in the region did.

The Prime Minister made it clear to President Jo Biden that our country will not bear this burden.  We need to devote Bahamian resources to solving Bahamian problems.

Earlier this week, NBC News and other media reported that the Trump transition team is proposing a list of countries to which it may deport migrants, and that The Bahamas, along with other nations in the region, was included on the list.

Our office released a statement in response to the list and proposal as reported by the media, and restated our country’s position, which is that we are unwilling and unable to accept migrants.

To be clear, our office responded to the proposal as characterized by the press, rather than any formal proposal made to us by President-elect Trump’s transition team, with whom we have not discussed the matter.

Our countries have long enjoyed a strong, productive relationship based on mutual interests.

We look forward to engaging constructively across a range of important issues with the incoming Trump Administration.

Garfield Ekon

Staff Writer

The Bahamas, December 3, 2024 – The Bahamian Government is instituting measures to ensure the reduction of illegal guns trafficked into the islands from the United States (US), according to Prime Minister, Hon. Philip Brave Davis.

His comments came after a recent report on gun trafficking in the Caribbean found that The Bahamas had the highest percentage of recovered firearms that were sourced in the US and traced to US retail purchasers.

“You know, I’ve been talking about the proliferation of arms in our country [emanating] from the United States for quite a while,” Prime Minister Davis said, in response to the report.

“Their report confirms what we believe and on the world stage I’ve been speaking about the fact that the United States’ right to bear arms cannot translate or mean a right to traffic in arms.”

Lamenting the fact that in spite of collaboration between local law enforcement and US authorities, illegal weapons continue to be smuggled into The Bahamas, he said “unfortunately the trafficking is still continuing but we’ve been able to trace and track, and some of the straw purchasers in the United States have been arrested and been charged in the United States,” he stated.

“We are making some progress. It is alarming. As you know, most of our violent crimes are perpetrated by guns which we don’t manufacture … [and have] been illegally brought into the country and we are attempting to find ways to continue to stem that tide,” the PM pointed out.

Ironically, the report preceded a shocking announcement of an indictment of 13 men, 11 from The Bahamas including Royal Bahamas Police and Defence Force members and two Colombians; charged with conspiracies related to firearms and narcotics trafficking through The Bahamas into the United States.

The US Government Accountability Office (GAO) prepared and published the report. It found that the majority of guns recovered in the Caribbean – 73 percent – between 2018 and 2022 were traced back to the United States and trafficked to the Caribbean by various means.

It said 45 percent of these trafficked guns “could be sourced back to an initial retail purchase in the United States, with most sales originating in Florida, Texas, and Georgia”. The remaining 27 percent of recovered and traced firearms were either traced to 35 other countries (23 percent) or their source was of undetermined origin (four percent), the report said.

The report said that the Department of Justice’s Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) processed 7,399 traces of firearms recovered in crimes in the Caribbean from 2018 through 2022.