Health Minister Dr. Duane Sands said this morning that a suspected COVID-19 patient died at Princess Margaret Hospital last night.

“That patient was flown to Nassau (from Bimini) and subsequently died,” Sands told The Nassau Guardian.

“She was not COVID positive. We do not know why she died. We are treating her as a suspect case. There are obviously tremendous sensitivities. This is the unfortunate era in which we live.”

Pressed on what he meant by suspect, Sands replied, “The patient had symptoms consistent with and travel history that could mean that she was COVID positive. So, that was a very significant part of the clinical impression and she had to be managed as such even though she had not been tested.”

He said health officials will test her.

“I don’t know when they will run that test but I don’t expect that it will be more than 24 or 48 hours,” the minister said.

There have been no known COVID-19 deaths in The Bahamas.

So far, there are 14 confirmed cases — 12 on New Providence and two on Grand Bahama — of the virus locally. Nearly 300 people are in quarantine, according to the Ministry of Health.

There are more than 800,000 cases of COVID-19 globally.

At least 38,700 people have died as a result of the virus.