A popular spa is desperately seeking guidance from the Ministry of Health after two employees tested positive for coronavirus last week and 184 clients were exposed to those workers. Spa owners have been calling health officials for days to hand over the list of clients exposed but health officials still haven’t gotten back to them, so they've taken it upon themselves to contact clients directly.
The spa’s receptionist travelled to Freeport earlier this month and returned to New Providence right before Grand Bahama’s borders were closed due to an explosion of new Covid-19 cases.
The employee tested negative for covid upon her return two weeks ago but got tested again last week after she began to display symptoms of the virus. That test came back positive, prompting another employee who worked closely with the receptionist to get tested as well. The second employee learned that she was also infected. Doctors Hospital, which completed the tests, advised the two spa employees that they would be contacted by the Ministry of Health, which would carry out contact tracing.
That was days ago.
Health officials never contacted the workers or their employer to find out who else may have been exposed to the virus. The business’ anxious owners decided to reach out to the Ministry to find out how to handle this scary situation but keep getting the runaround.
They are terrified for the 184 clients who were exposed to the two employees between the time the receptionist returned from Freeport and the time both employees tested positive.
This means 184 spa clients could be walking around New Providence oblivious that they were exposed to two COVID-19 cases and may be infected as well. If they did get COVID, they could now be passing it on to members of their household.
How many other people have tested positive but there has been no contact tracing to determine if they too passed the virus on to some unsuspecting friend, customer or family member?
The Ministry of Health is overwhelmed and out of its depth. Three PMH wards have been shut down by COVID-19 but the Public Hospitals Authority refuses to acknowledge these reports publicly.
Burnt out Doctors and nurses are complaining about the lack of PPEs and communication with those at the top. Covid dashboards on new cases are being released later and later each day with less information.
The new Minister of Health is clueless during the pandemic, relies heavily on statements prepared for him and couldn’t answer a question directly during a Ministry of Health press conference if his life depended on it.