COVID-19 death toll rises to eight in Bermuda - Jamaica Gleaner

HAMILTON, Bermuda, CMC – Bermuda’s death toll from the coronavirus has risen to eight, Health Minister Kim Wilson has announced.

Wilson gave no details of the victim at Monday night’s press briefing but said she was “deeply saddened” to report another fatality.

Wilson said the total number of confirmed cases was now 119 after 469 test results received since Sunday identified one case of the disease.

Almost 4,500 tests have now been carried out.

The number of people in hospital has fallen from 11 to eight on Saturday, with some patients discharged and 66 persons now recovered from the virus.

Wilson said testing was completed over the weekend at all of the island’s 21 care homes for the elderly, where the total cases of the virus remain at 44.

Three of Bermuda’s deaths have been at two of the homes, with COVID-19 cases confirmed at five of them.

Tourism and Transport Minister Zane DeSilva said flights between Bermuda and five cities are expected to be available when the international airport reopens to commercial flights.

It has been closed since March 20, although a handful of special flights bringing home stranded residents have been allowed to land.

DeSilva said he could not give a timetable for regular flight resumption, but cautioned that the unpredictable nature of the coronavirus pandemic meant that the situation could be worse by the time the island reached the last of its four-phase return to near normal.

“All of the airlines serving our country before COVID-19 say they are ready to return to Bermuda once the crisis passes. However, and perhaps not unexpectedly, the mix of gateway cities, the time of year, and the frequency of flights may not be what we have become used to in years past, at least not initially.

“We should anticipate a gradual resumption of the regularly scheduled air services. We should certainly not expect everything to return to normal immediately,” DeSilva said.

He said that “when the time is right” to resume regular flights, they were expected to operate between Bermuda and New York, Boston, Atlanta, and Toronto.

He added that the British Airways service was expected to return about the same time, but would be from London’s Heathrow airport instead of Gatwick.

He said that flight services from Philadelphia and Miami were expected to return a little later, although he said that could also change.

DeSilva said that seasonal services from Newark, New Jersey, Washington, and Charlotte, North Carolina were not expected to restart until next year.

The government has tabled legislation allowing residents feeling the pinch from the economic impact of the virus to withdraw up to US$12,000 from their private pension funds.

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