News Americas, NEW YORK, NY, Mon. March 23, 2020: The number of new coronavirus cases in the Caribbean continues to increase with one country yesterday reporting over 200 confirmed cases alone.
The Dominican Republic continues to lead the region with the number of COVID-19 cases, jumping from 112 Saturday to 202 last night. The country’s death toll, however, remained at 3.
The addition of 90 new cases in one day and the continued uptick there has led to the Danilo Medina government ordering a nationwide nighttime curfew over the next two weeks in a bid to sharply limit movement and prevent the spread of the new virus.
Public transportation in the Caribbean island nation, including the capital’s subway system, was suspended indefinitely from Saturday, as well as bus services operated by private companies.
The country’s borders are also sealed with commercial flights and ships banned for 25 days. Also closed are schools and entertainment venues.
The closures were originally part of a 15-day state of emergency issued by the president, which was extended to 25 days following approval by the Dominican Congress.
REGIONAL CASES
The spike in new cases in the DR pushed up the region numbers dramatically to now 526 cases as of last night according to a News Americas analysis with 11 deaths to date.
Grenada reported its first case on Sunday as Cuba’s confirmed cases jumped by 14 to 35 last night.
Here’s the count for other countries confirming COVID-19 cases to date:
Guadeloupe – 56 plus one death
Trinidad and Tobago – 50 with one new case reported Sunday
Martinique – 37 plus one death
Puerto Rico – 23 cases with two new cases reported Sunday and one death.
Jamaica – 19 plus one death
Guyana – 18 plus one death
French Guiana – 18
Barbados – 14
Aruba – 9 with 4 news cases reported Sunday
Bermuda – 6 with 4 news cases reported Sunday
USVI – 6
Saint Martin – 5
Suriname – 5
Bahamas – 4
Cayman Islands – 3 plus 1 death
Curacao – 3 plus one death
St. Barths – 3
Haiti – 2
St. Lucia – 2
Antigua & Barbuda – 1
Dominica – 1
St. Vincent and the Grenadines – 1
Montserrat – 1
Sint Maarten – 1
Grenada – 1
DEATHS
The Caribbean now has a total of 11 deaths.
CORONA FREE NATIONS
The only coronavirus free nations in the Caribbean currently are:
Belize – which has closed its borders for 30 days as of yesterday.
The Turks & Caicos
Anguilla
The British Virgin Islands
GLOBALLY
Globally, there are now 336,075 cases of the virus with 14,613 deaths worldwide, including 5,476 in Italy, the most of any nation in the world.
