By NAN Staff Writer
NEW YORK, NY, Mon. April 20, 2020: As the global death toll from COVID-19, also known as SARS-CoV-2, past 164,000 and the tally of the dead in the US alone past 40,000, a News Americas unscientific tally of the death toll among Caribbean immigrants in the US and UK Diasporas put the number at over 10 dozen as of last night.
Based on its tracking of immigrants from the Caribbean who have died so far, the number is put at some 125 with Guyana leading the list with some 61.
Among those from Guyana who have been killed by the virus are former North American airlines executive, Billy Braithwaite; Jim Bacchus, founder, Jim Bacchus Travel Agency; Michael Gilkes, poet, actor, playwright, director, literary critic, who died in after three nights in the ICU fighting Covid-19; Captain Mohammed Rahaman who was assigned to the NYPD 115 Pct.; Dennis Dickson, 62, who worked for 14 years as a janitor with the New York City Police Department; Prea Nankieshore, 34, a former clerk who registered patients in the emergency room at Long Island Jewish Forest Hills hospital in NYC; Wayne Benn Fingal, an ex-police officer from New Amsterdam, Berbice and a NY Transit Bus driver, who resided in Brooklyn, NY; Oliver Cyrus, 61 Guyana-born, an MTA bus operator for 21 years and Oswald Anthony Mussenden, a former solider in the Guyana Defense Force from 1975 to 1984.
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News Americas has also tracked 13 deaths of Trinidadian immigrants including Conrad Ifill, the owner of New York’s Conrads Famous Bakery in Brooklyn, NY; Rosemary Coutou, a nurse in Brooklyn, NY who was originally from south Trinidad and was employed at the Kings Brook Hospital in Brooklyn and Gail Naidu Bell-Bonnette, who was born in Trinidad and best known for organizing Caribbean cultural awareness campaigns and activities in the East Orange and Orange communities of New Jersey.
And 13 of Jamaican immigrants including popular radio personality, Gil Bailey; Albert Malcolm, father of former top English cricketer, Devon Malcolm; Ian William Wilson who lived in the Bronx and worked as a licensed practical nurse (LPN) nurse at Isabella Nursing Home in New York City; Earl Bailey, a 56-year-old nurse and resident of Sunrise, Florida and Michelle Bennett, aunt of Miss Universe 2018 first runner-up Davina Bennett.
NAN has also tracked 12 deaths of Saint Lucians including Carlyle Martial, a former St. Lucian athlete; 11 deaths of Grenadian immigrants including Roy Hastick, founder, Caribbean American Chamber of Industry and commerce (CAACI); Popular DJ Roach and Spice Angel Michelle Joseph who hailed from Spring Street, Georges Grenada and 8 Bajans including Jean Weekes-Husbands, a 65-year-old senior analyst at a financial investment firm in New Jersey; Anthony Hall, secretary of the Barbados Ex-Policemen’s Association and Marlene Hinds, president of the Barbados group at St Gabriel’s Church in Brooklyn.
The list is growing and there is no real count or memorial to date. Please send us any names of friends or family members so we can add to our list. Message us via https://www.facebook.com/NewsAmericasNowNews/
A NAN analysis of a NYC map shows Caribbean American zip codes are among the hardest hit by the virus
All three boroughs have been hit hard by the virus. Zips codes 11411 and 11429 in Queens, NY, which includes areas like Cambria Heights and Queens Village, Zip codes 11234 and 11236, which includes areas like east Flatbush, Canarsie and Flatlands and Bronx zip codes like 10465 and 10461, which are all NYC hot spots, are largely enclaves of foreign-born Caribbean immigrants.
