Coronavirus Has Come To The Caribbean

NEW YORK, NY, Mon. March 2, 2020: The Caribbean region is coronavirus free no longer. As of last night, there were now four reported cases.

The Caribbean island of Saint-Barthélemy, the Northern Island of Guadeloupe, has three cases.

After a Saint-Barth resident contacted the hospital with worrying symptoms, his parents leaving for Paris from Saint-Martin international airport were intercepted by health authorities before their departure on Friday.

The analysis, carried out by the Pasteur laboratory in Guadeloupe, confirmed that all three were positive.

And also on Sunday, the Dominican Republic registered its first case of the new coronavirus on March 1, 2020 – an Italian traveler.

Dominican Republic, Public Health Minister Rafael Sanchez Cardenas said Sunday that the man, 62, arrived in the Caribbean country from Pesaro, Italy, on February 22. Two days later he began to show symptoms of fever, persistent cough and general malaise, so he was isolated, Sanchez said at a press conference. He was being treated in isolation at a military hospital and “has not shown serious complications.”

The three cases of Covid-19 have been confirmed as positive in Saint-Martin and Saint-Barthélemy, the Northern Islands of Guadeloupe, making them the first cases of coronavirus in the French Overseas territories.

After a Saint-Barth resident contacted the Samu for worrying symptoms, his parents leaving for Paris from Saint-Martin international airport were intercepted by health authorities before their departure on Friday. The analyzes, carried out by the Pasteur laboratory in Guadeloupe, confirmed that all three were positive.

Two other people are also reportedly under surveillance in Saint-Martin, after holidays there.

The news comes as Jamaican officials said Friday there are now 5 persons in government quarantine, 5 in home quarantine and 2 persons in isolation and for whom we are awaiting test results because of the virus.

As at Feb 26, 141 persons arrived in Jamaica who had been in China 14 days prior to arrival there.

As of last night, deaths from the virus topped 3,000 while 88,400 people around the world have been infected. The US, Thailand, and Australia all announced their first coronavirus-related deaths on Sunday.