A month ahead of Christmas, the Caribbean—while collectively in its fifth week of experiencing a plateau in coronavirus (COVID-19) cases—could be sitting on a new ‘infection explosion’ as hotspots begin to emerge across several countries and territories.

Noticeably, the Dominican Republic, Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados, Belize and Cayman Islands are all reeling from a continued, triple-digit spike in COVID-19 cases, coinciding with the Delta variant’s introduction in local populations.

It is not all impending doom, however, as the Caribbean, still devoid of ‘coronavirus free’ territories, marked 64 consecutive weeks of maintaining mostly closed cases.

Over the last seven days, new infections (21,506) marginally outnumbered closed cases (18,215).

Our Today analysis of regional data finds 28 of the 32 affected countries and territories have reported new cases within the last 48 hours. 

Cuba, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago rank as the five worst-hit territories in the region this week. 

As at 5:40 pm Greenwich Meridian Time (GMT) on Thursday, November 25, collated data from respective health departments across the region has indicated a combined total of 2,157,387 confirmed cases of COVID-19.

Of that number, some 1,756,561 cases, or roughly 81.42 per cent, have officially been declared closed. There are an estimated 400,826 active cases regionally.

The statistics were largely the result of patients across the Caribbean reporting a full recovery from the infectious disease (1,727,808 recoveries to date, barring insufficient data from Puerto Rico, French Guiana, Guadeloupe and Martinique).

In the meantime, the total number of patients who succumbed to coronavirus-related complications spiked to 28,753.

See Our Today’s latest situational analysis on COVID-19 in the Caribbean below:

Cuba: 240 new cases; 961,698 confirmed. 8,299 patients have died. (952,206 recoveries)

Dominican Republic: 759 new cases; 405,513 confirmed. 4,197 patients have died. (396,983 patients have recovered)

Puerto Rico: 96 new cases; 188,015 confirmed. 3,266 patients have died. (*No information available on recoveries)

Jamaica: 56 new cases; 90,961 confirmed. 2,367 patients have died. (62,171 recoveries)

Trinidad and Tobago: 689 new cases; 67,664 confirmed. 2,009 patients have died. (56,538 recoveries)

Guadeloupe: 221 new cases; 55,147 confirmed. 743 patients have died. (2,250 recoveries)

Suriname: 48 new cases; 50,629 confirmed. 1,158 patients have died. (29,561 recoveries)

French Guiana: 32 new cases; 45,763 confirmed. 325 patients have died. (9,995 recoveries)

Martinique: 79 new cases; 45,010 confirmed. 707 patients have died. (124 recoveries)

Guyana: 79 new cases; 37,524 confirmed. 980 patients have died. (34,822 recoveries)

Belize: 111 new cases; 29,967 confirmed. 569 patients have died. (28,146 recoveries)

Haiti: 24 new cases; 24,974 confirmed. 723 patients have died. (20,901 recoveries)

Barbados: 290 new cases; 24,234 confirmed. 213 patients have died. (15,910 recoveries)

The Bahamas: 15 new cases; 22,696 confirmed. 671 patients have died. (21,588 recoveries)

Curaçao: 14 new cases;  17,362 confirmed. 178 patients have died. (17,062 recoveries)

Aruba: 16 new cases; 16,246 confirmed. 173 patients have died. (15,897 recoveries)

St Lucia: Six new cases; 12,927 confirmed. 279 patients have died. (12,528 recoveries)

US Virgin Islands: 10 new cases; 7,490 confirmed. 85 patients have died. (7,299 recoveries)

Cayman Islands: 176 new cases; 6,459 confirmed. Four patients have died. (2,315 recoveries)

Grenada: Two new cases; 5,880 confirmed. 200 patients have died. (5,622 recoveries)

Dominica: 60 new cases; 5,776 confirmed. 37 patients have died. (5,385 recoveries)

Bermuda: No new cases; 5,724 confirmed. 106 patients have died. (5,593 recoveries)

St Vincent and the Grenadines: 32 new cases; 5,446 confirmed. 74 patients have died. (4,891 recoveries)

Sint Maarten: Five new cases; 4,570 confirmed. 75 patients have died. (4,472 recoveries)

Antigua and Barbuda: One new case; 4,139 confirmed. 117 patients have died. (3,999 recoveries)

St Martin: 18 new cases; 3,963 confirmed. 56 patients have died. (1,399 recoveries)

Turks & Caicos Islands: Four new cases; 3,092 confirmed. 24 patients have died. (3,020 recoveries)

St Kitts and Nevis: No new cases; 2,774 confirmed. 28 patients have died. (2,716 recoveries)

British Virgin Islands: No reported new cases; 2,765 confirmed. 38 patients have died. (2,706 recoveries)

Saint-Barthélemy: Four new cases; 1,601 confirmed. Six patients have died. (462 recoveries)

Anguilla: 66 new cases; 1,334 confirmed. Three patients have died. (1,207 recoveries)

Montserrat: No new cases; 44 confirmed. One patient has died. (40 recoveries)

NB: There are no countries without active cases at this time