Higher temperatures affect survival of new coronavirus, pathologist says

March 17, 2020, 6:19 am

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By John Roach, AccuWeather

Research from a laboratory-grown copy of the coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) that causes the COVID-19 illness shows that heat affects the virus and impacts its behavior, a top pathologist said new research has shown. But other infectious disease experts aren't yet convinced.

“In cold environments, there is longer virus survival than warm ones,” Hong Kong University pathology professor John Nicholls told AccuWeather exclusively.

Nicholls and colleagues from a team at Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou, China, previously produced a study, which was published in February and has yet to be peer-reviewed, noting the effect of heat. Their research is based on one of the world’s first lab-grown copies of SARS-CoV-2.

“Temperature could significantly change COVID-19 transmission,” the authors note in the study. They also pointed out that the “virus is highly sensitive to high temperature.”  Read more >>

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The 25 Best Beaches in The Bahamas

March 17, 2020, 8:55 am

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 By Caribbean Journal Staff

People sometimes forget the sheer vastness of The Bahamas. You may know there are 700 islands and cays, but you may not realize that The Bahamas covers an expanse of almost 655,000 square kilometers. It is not just a country — it is a turquoise-hued universe, and across its shimmering waters you will find every manner of beach, from tiny coves to pink-sand masterpieces and undiscovered sandbars hidden away in the sea. You could fill an entire list of the best beaches in the region exclusively using Bahamas beaches — they’re that good.

As you can imagine, then, narrowing down a list of our 25 favorites is no small task, but we’ve put together a comprehensive ranking that touches on nearly every accessible land mass in The Bahamas, from popular beach destinations to some out-of-the-way gems.

Here are the 25 best beaches in The Bahamas.  Read more >>

NIB releases COVID-19 benefits fact sheet

March 17, 2020, 9:41 am

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National Insurance Board headquarters

NASSAU, BAHAMAS — The National Insurance Board has released a fact sheet to make clear how customers can access benefits if they contract the coronavirus (COVID-19) or are quarantined due to suspected or confirmed exposure.

The board confirmed both the Sickness and Unemployement Benefits are payable.

To access the Sickness Benefit, an individual must be employed on the day of or the day before the illness began, and must be able to satisfy the contribution conditions.

Those contributions are: “You must have paid at least 40 contributions overall; and you must have paid and/or been credited with: 13 contributions in the 26 weeks immediately before the week in which the period of quarantine was imposed; or 26 contributions in the 52 weeks before the week in which the period of quarantine was imposed; or 26 contributions in the contribution year immediately preceding the first day of your quarantine.  Read more >>

Brennen: Bahamas must take a hard stance to combat spread of COVID-19

March 17, 2020, 9:46 am

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Dr. Delon Brennen

By Krystel Brown

Deputy Chief Medical Officer Dr. Delon Brennen said The Bahamas has to take a “hard stance” in order to flatten the spread of COVID-19 locally, including shutting down some non-essential services in the country.

He said church services are among those that should be discontinued.

“If you’re going to take a hard stance, you’re gonna have to say we discourage people from attending those types of services,” Brennen said today on the Guardian Radio show “Morning Blend” with Dwight Strachan.

“So when we get calls from the Ministry of Health, we say, ‘We would strongly discourage you.’

“And they say, ‘Should I do this.’ And we say, ‘No, don’t go to church services’.”  Read more >>

Bahamas Feels Effects Of Global Coronavirus Crisis

March 17, 2020, 9:51 am

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The US departures area at Lynden Pindling International Airport looked pretty deserted yesterday. Photo: Shawn Hanna/Tribune Staff

By RASHAD ROLLE
Tribune Senior Reporter
rrolle@tribunemedia.net

DEPUTY Chief Medical Officer Dr Delon Brennen said the 61-year-old woman with the novel coronavirus visited the Fleming Street Clinic last week, prompting Ministry of Health officials to encourage some clinic staff to self-quarantine.

However, he said the woman’s visit is not what prompted the commotion captured in a viral video on Wednesday when staff fled the clinic amid panic over the disease - he said that was a separate incident, with the patient testing negative for the virus in that case.

The news came as the reality of the global coronavirus crisis began to bite home for Bahamians. Some restaurants and tourism businesses now plan to shut their doors. Churches are considering suspending gatherings. Jail visits have been indefinitely suspended and major events like the Bahamas Carnival festival have been postponed.

The US Departures Terminal of the Lynden Pindling Airport provided an eerie glimpse of the impact, with few travellers in the facility during the usually busy season. Up to press time, the first known person in the country with COVID-19 remained the only confirmed or suspected case, according to the Ministry of Health.  Read more >>

Florida governor orders closure of all bars and nightclubs for 30 days effective Tuesday

March 17, 2020, 10:07 am

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Florida governor orders closure of all bars and nightclubs for 30 days

FLORIDA — Amid the coronavirus pandemic, Gov. Ron DeSantis announced in a news conference that all Florida bars and nightclubs in will be closed for 30 days beginning at 5 p.m. Tuesday, March 17.

The new restrictions will reduce the ability of people to congregate in large numbers.  Read more >>

10 Positive Updates on the COVID-19 Outbreaks From Around the World

March 17, 2020, 10:15 am

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By McKinley Corbley

If it seems that your news feed has been flooded with nerve-wracking updates on the COVID-19 outbreaks, have no fear—there are also plenty of positive updates on the pandemic as well.

So without any further ado, here is a list of 10 hopeful headlines on the coronavirus response from around the world.  Read more >>

Schools closed - Continued Learning Online

March 17, 2020, 10:27 am

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While schools are closed at this time students may continue there education online by using these free educational websites.

MATH

FunBrain

Prodigy

Math Playground

Splash Learn

Math Game Time

Khan Academy

SCIENCE

Discovery Mindblown

NASA Kids Club

Amazing Space

Code Academy

How Stuff Works

SOCIAL STUDIES

Crash Course

Who was?

Nat Geo Kids

Google Earth

Time for Kids

Smithsonian for Kids

OTHER

Brain Pop

Ted Talks

PBS Kids

DuoLingo

Hello Kids

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A chemistry professor explains: why soap is so good at killing COVID-19

March 17, 2020, 11:53 am

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 Soap is able to breakdown the fatty layer that protects the virus.

By Sean Fleming

One of the most consistent COVID-19 messages from health officials has been the importance of good personal hygiene.

Washing your hands with soap is one of the simplest and most effective ways of killing off any viruses you may have come into contact with.  Read more >>

New York City mayor says 'shelter in place' decision coming in next 48 hours

March 17, 2020, 12:20 pm

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An empty street in Manhattan, New York, on March 15, 2020.Jeenah Moon / Reuters

By Erik Ortiz and Corky Siemaszko

The City That Never Sleeps could be shutting down in 48 hours.

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said Tuesday that he was considering whether to impose a shelter in place order which would essentially require residents to stay in their homes and keep outside social contact to a minimum to slow the spread of the coronavirus in the nation's largest city.  Read more >>

A wonderful article written by my “little sister” Arlene Nash-Ferguson - Oswald Brown

March 17, 2020, 1:47 pm

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Raphael (Ray) Munnings (font row left), his wife Wendy (front row second from left) and some of Ray’s former classmates at St. John’s College High School at a recent class get together at the Fish Fry  on a Saturday in Nassau, Bahamas. I don’t recognize all of the persons in the photo, but my “little sister” Arlene Nash-Ferguson is center in the second row; Arnold “Bain Boy” Bain, a former outstanding track and field athlete at Howard University in Washington, D.C., in the 1970s, is at center, directly in the back of Arlene; Pharmacist Clinton McCartney of WILMAC Pharmacy is second from right in front row. (Photo by Athama Bowe)

THE DAY CLUB

By ARLENE NASH-FERGUSON

NASSAU, Bahamas — I turned the car radio louder, glorying in the Bahamian music that almost seems to be non-existent on some radio stations at times. It was ‘Funky Nassau’, still catchy after all these years, and that beautiful and so familiar voice sang me right back through the years to where it begun for me. It was 1963, the annual school talent show was approaching, and when Ray Munnings. Oswald Brown, Athama [Box] Bowe and Robert Smith announced that they had signed up to sing, we began to giggle. This was going to be fun, especially if they sounded the way they usually did in Music class, when they were determined to be mischievous and hold the notes longer than everyone else, much to Mrs. Eneas’ chagrin.  Read more >>

Unions call for COVID-19 relief measures

March 17, 2020, 3:05 pm

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Bernard Evans

By  Ava Turnquest

NCTUB says workers cannot afford to be pushed any closer to poverty line
NASSAU, BAHAMAS — The National Congress of Trade Unions Bahamas (NCTUB) is urging lawmakers to consider relief measures to mitigate fallout from the global coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, and asking businesses not to reduce work capacity to cut costs.

NCTUB president Bernard Evans noted heightened national anxiety over COVID-19’s impact on the economy and workers’ livelihoods as preventative measures intensify.

“We still don’t know the full impact of this pandemic,” Evans said.

“There are a lot of questions that people are asking as they face this uncertainty of potential income loss. While we anticipate that there may be some job interruptions we are also calling on the Government of The Bahamas, that is all the men and women who are in both Houses, to please consider measures for relief as workers in this country cannot afford to be pushed any closer to the poverty line than they are now".  Read now >>

“To The Rest Of The World, You Have No Idea What’s Coming”: Man Lists 6 Stages Italy Has Gone Through

March 17, 2020, 3:36 pm

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By Jonas Grinevičius and Justinas Keturka

Twitter user Jason Yanowitz listed the stages that Italy went through during the outbreak of the coronavirus in the country. He urged people to realize that the situation is more serious than some believe and he suggested that what we see in Italy can soon become the norm in other countries over the world.  Read more >>

Study Shows How Long COVID-19 Virus Lives on Different Materials: Plastic, Steel, Copper, Cardboard, Air

March 17, 2020, 3:54 pm

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Cardboard: Up to 24 hours

By Rain Noe

A new study reveals how long the COVID-19 virus can survive on a variety of common materials.  Read more >>

The coronavirus fake news pandemic sweeping WhatsApp

March 17, 2020, 4:12 pm

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False information has traveled widely on WhatsApp. | Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

By JANOSCH DELCKER, ZOSIA WANAT and MARK SCOTT

The voice of the woman, introducing herself as “Elisabeth … you know, Poldi’s mom,” sounded genuinely concerned.

A friend of hers, who was a doctor at the university hospital of Vienna, had called her with a warning, she said in German. The clinic had noticed that most patients with severe symptoms of COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus pandemic, had taken the painkiller ibuprofen before they were hospitalized. Tests run by the university’s laboratory, she added, had found “strong evidence that ibuprofen accelerates the multiplication of the virus.”

With lightning speed, an audio recording of the message spread among German-language users of WhatsApp, the messenger service owned by Facebook. Quickly, similar recordings referring to alleged research from Vienna in other languages like Slovak also began circulating on the service.

But the WhatsApp message was based on fake information.  Read more >>

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World Bank Boosts Coronavirus Funds With $2 Billion From IFC

March 17, 2020, 4:17 pm

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By Ania Nussbaum and Eric Martin

The World Bank is boosting its coronavirus response package by $2 billion with funds from the International Finance Corporation, its lender to the private sector.

The IFC’s planned funds are in addition to the $12 billion announced March 3 by the bank, the world’s top development institution said in a statement. The assistance is aimed at supporting industry and employees impacted by the disease.  Read more >>

Proclamation of Emergency

March 18, 2020, 4:22 am

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Regulations will grant a wide-range of powers to Prime Minister Minnis who will unveil package of drastic measures to stop the coronavirus spread. PM Minnis is expected to address the nation this morning at 10am. Please tune in.

View Proclamation of Emergency
View Arrangement and Regulations
View Resolution

Jackie O’s pool palace in the Bahamas asking $5.5M

March 18, 2020, 4:31 am

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Jackie Kennedy Onassis (above) used to winter at Minor Cay in the Bahamas, now asking $5.5 million. The Estate of Jacques Lowe/Getty Images & Brett Davis Photography.

By Jennifer Gould Keil

In the 1970s, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and her sister Caroline Lee Radziwill spent winter weekends in the Bahamas, at the home of ketchup mogul Jack Heinz. Society photographer Slim Aarons, famed for his slick summer shots, photographed Radziwill’s children at play there, too. Now the three-story home, known as Minor Cay, is on the market for $5.5 million (with Christie’s International Real Estate).  Read more >>

China sending medical supplies to The Bahamas

March 18, 2020, 4:34 am

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Haigang Yin, counselor and spokesman for the Chinese embassy in Nassau.

By Royston Jones Jr.

Embassy supports social distancing measures, expanded travel restrictions.

NASSAU, BAHAMAS — Counselor and Spokesman for the Chinese Embassy in Nassau Haigang Yin confirmed China will send The Bahamas medical supplies this week to help shore up its capacity as the nation combats the spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19).

In an interview with Eyewitness News, Yin said the embassy was following the situation very closely as it understand the “vulnerability of this island country with tourism as its major industry”.

“We have offered some material assistance to the government of The Bahamas,” Yin said.

“At this moment I cannot tell you the details, but I assure the materials are on the way from China to The Bahamas now.”

Yin, who later divulged the support package includes medical supplies, said he expects the delivery to arrive sometime this week.  Read more >>

Governor: $2bn Reserves Enough To Overcome Virus

March 18, 2020, 4:42 am

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Governor of Central Bank, John Rolle

By NEIL HARTNELL
Tribune Business Editor
nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

The Central Bank's governor yesterday reassured that $2bn in external reserves are enough to meet The Bahamas' foreign currency needs despite the "major reduction" projected due to the virus.

John Rolle, in e-mailed replies to Tribune Business questions, said the Central Bank's foreign currency reserves will be sufficient to meet import demand and other external obligations until the tourism industry and other exchange earners recover from the COVID-19 pandemic.

He added that traditional pressures on the reserves, such as the imports consumed by tourists and foreign travel by Bahamians, will not be present as long as the outbreak continues.  Read more >>