Ministry of Health COVID-19 Update February 17 2021

Good day.
The Ministry of Health received 543 test results since the last update, and two were positive for COVID-19. One of the new cases is a resident who arrived on BA 2233 from London on 11 February and tested positive on their day 4 test. The second new case is a non-resident who arrived on Jet Blue B62231 from New York on 6 February and tested positive on their day 8 test
Additionally, since the last update, there were no recoveries.
There are currently six active cases, of which;

• Five are under public health monitoring and;
• One is in the hospital with none in critical care.

Since March 2020, Bermuda has recorded 697 total confirmed cases of COVID-19; out of those, 679 persons have recovered, and 12 persons have sadly succumbed to COVID-19.
The mean age of all confirmed positive cases is 43 years (median: 40 years), and the ages range from less than 1 year to greater than 100 years.
The mean age of all currently active cases is 47 years (median: 39 years), and the ages range from less than 40 years (age group: 30-39 years) to greater than 70 years (age group: 70-79 years).
Age information will not be provided on the hospitalized cases to protect privacy and confidentiality.
The mean age of all deceased cases is 75 years (median: 77 years), and the ages range from less than 60 years (age group: 50-59 years) to greater than 80 years (age group: 80-100 years).
The source of all cases is as follows:

• 203 are imported
• 493 are classified as local transmission of which:
• 402 are local transmission with known contact/source and
• 91 are local transmission with an unknown contact/source
• 1 is under investigation

As investigations proceed, transmission categories may change.
Of the over 170,000 test results reported, the mean age of all persons tested is 43 years (median: 42 years), and the ages range from less than one year to greater than 100 years.
The seven-day average of our real-time reproduction number is less than one, and Bermuda’s current country status remains “Sporadic Cases”.
Yesterday, the Minister of Health announced that Bermuda is now in Phase 2 of the National Vaccination Allocation Strategy.
“In Phase 2 we encourage anyone over 50, an essential traveller (medical or school travel), persons with heart disease, chronic kidney disease or diabetes, for example, as well as those with disabilities, to register their interest,” explained Minister of Health, Kim Wilson, JP, MP.
“Priority will still be given to those persons in Phases 1A and 1B –  this includes people who are 80 or older, care home residents, health care and essential workers, people 65 or older and people who are extremely vulnerable, such as those undergoing chemotherapy or with severe asthma or COPD.”
“We estimate that 70% of the local population needs to be fully vaccinated for us to achieve herd immunity. It will take some time to reach that goal, and so a more immediate goal is the immunization of 90% of persons over 65 years – this is our most vulnerable group. If you are over 65 and have not been vaccinated, please register as soon as possible. If you know someone over 65 who has not been vaccinated, encourage them to do so as soon as possible.”
“To get more information about the vaccine, visit: gov.bm/vaccine.”