COVID-19 numbers islands still very high

The Netherlands Nation­al Institute of Public Health and the Environ­ment RIVM on Friday reported that a total of 14,064 persons in the Dutch Caribbean re­ceived a positive coro­navirus COVID-19 test result in the week of January 6-12.

This is more than the RIVM stated in its previ­ous epidemiological re­port of January 7, when in the week of Decem­ber 30, 2021, to January 5, 2022, a total number of 11,260 persons tested positive for COVID-19 on the six Dutch Carib­bean islands.

Curacao had the larg­est number of new infec­tions in the week Janu­ary 6-12 with 6,116 new positive COVID-19 test results. On Thursday Curacao broke its own record by surpassing the mark of 10,000 active COVID-19 cases. From December 30 to Janu­ary 5, Aruba reported the highest number of COVID-19 cases with 5,189 new infections.

The Omicron vari­ant was detected in many specimens in the source surveillance in Aruba, Curacao and St. Maarten, the RIVM stated in its weekly re­port. “The Omicron variant seems to have rapidly increased in the second half of Decem­ber and currently causes the largest part of the in­fections. The increase of this variant most prob­ably explains the rapidly rising incidence, where­by it is noteworthy that the number of hospital admissions seems to be lagging for now.”

The incidence, the number of positive tests per 100,000 inhabitants, seemed to be stabilis­ing on the islands, but remained “alarmingly high,” according to the RIVM. The incidence in Aruba in the week Janu­ary 6-12, was 3,964 per­sons per 100,000 inhab­itants, in Bonaire, 3,759 persons per 100,000 and in Curacao, 3,724 per­sons per 100,000.

In St. Maarten, 3,135 persons tested positive per 100,000 inhabit­ants in the week Janu­ary 6-12. In Saba, the incidence was 4,223 per 100,000 and in St. Eusta­tius 2,419 per 100,000.

The Daily Herald.