US network CNN and Bahamas newspaper The Tribune cited Health Minister Duane Sands as confirming the new toll, up from 30, AFP reported.
“Forty-three is the official count, many missing and this number is expected to grow significantly,“ Erica Wells Cox, a spokeswoman for Prime Minister Hubert Minnis, told NBC News.
Dorian was a Category 5 hurricane - the highest on the five-level wind scale - when it slammed into the northern Bahamas on Sunday, leaving a trail of immense destruction.
According to UN relief officials, more than 70,000 people - virtually the entire population of the islands of Grand Bahama and Abaco - are in need of assistance after the storm reduced homes to matchsticks and destroyed people’s livelihoods.
Hundreds - perhaps thousands - are missing and Bahamian officials have said the final toll could be “staggering.”