Three Caribbean Community (CARICOM) countries registered milestones in relation to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic as the region continued to record deaths and new cases of the virus.
In Suriname, with eight lives lost in the past 24 hours to the virus, the authorities on the Dutch-speaking Caribbean Community (CARICOM) country reported that the country passed the mark of 500 deaths on Sunday evening.
The death rate is now 507, including 205 this month.
They said of the 562 citizens tested 89 were positive and that Suriname now has a total of 21,249 people who have been infected since the virus broke out in March last year.
There are 216 people in the hospitals and 35 patients in the intensive care units.
Another 226 civilians have been declared cured in the past 24 hours, bringing that total to 16,710.
In addition, there are 1,704 positively tested persons in isolation.
Trinidad and Tobago continued to register deaths from the virus, with the Ministry of Health indicating in its latest bulletin that there were 17 deaths on Sunday, taking the national total to 817.
But, new positive cases reported in the last 24 hours were 129 putting the total at 31,298 with 23,873 having recovered and 7,508 being active.
There are 401 patients in hospitals, 305 in state-sanctioned facilities and 6,827 in home isolation.
The update said seven elderly males, seven elderly females, two middle-aged males with co-morbidities and one elderly male without co-morbidities died from the virus.
The ministry’s update said 62 people were discharged from public health facilities and there were 136 recovered community cases.
Jamaica recorded 41 new cases of the COVID-19 on Saturday, pushing the country’s confirmed cases since the virus outbreak in March to 50,005.
The new cases comprise 24 females and 17 males with ages ranging from 10 to 75 years and the Ministry of Health and Wellness said that four Jamaicans became the latest victims of the virus, pushing the virus toll 1,061.
The latest victims are a 76-year-old female from Manchester, whose death was previously under investigation; a 76-year-old male from St Thomas, a 44-year-old male also from St Thomas; and an 84-year-old male from Kingston and St Andrew.
Another death was also reported as coincidental.
The authorities also reported 183 new recoveries, which pushed the total recoveries to 29,830. There are 18,750 active cases on the island.
In Guyana, the Ministry of Health has reported that 103 people have been infected with the disease, taking the total number of infections recorded since March 11, 2020, to 19,877.
These new cases were confirmed after 897 polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests were conducted. No additional deaths have been recorded and as such, the total death toll has remained at 462.
So far this month, 64 people have died from the virus.
The authorities said that of the new positive cases recorded men account for 49 of these cases, while the 54 women were newly infected. A total of 9,700 men and 10,177 women have been infected to date.
Additionally, there are 1,739 active cases; 15 of these active cases are patients in the COVID-19 Intensive Care Unit (ICU), 1,630 are people in home isolation, five people are in institutional quarantine and the remaining 89 people are in institutional isolation.
Meanwhile, 34 people who were previously infected have now recovered from the disease. The total number of people who have recovered to date is 17,681.
In Barbados, one COVID-19 case, a female, was recorded on Saturday, out of the 519 tests conducted by the Best-dos Santos Public Health Laboratory. Thirty-four people are in isolation.
There have been 4,075 confirmed cases of COVID-19 (1,975 females and 2,100 males) since the beginning of the pandemic in March last year, and 47 persons have succumbed to the viral illness.
The total number of tests carried out by the public health laboratory since February 2020 is 183,862.
St Lucia recorded nine new cases of COVID-19 from a batch of 126 samples that were taken from June 24-26.
“These newly diagnosed cases mean that there are now 88 active cases in Saint Lucia. They are all doing well and none of them have had to be placed in the intensive care unit. The total number of cases diagnosed in the country is now 5278,” the ministry said.
It added that it was encouraging all residents of St Lucia to get vaccinated to protect themselves, their family, and the wider society.