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Hours away from the start of a new year, the Caribbean now faces a full-blown fourth wave of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, with infections rising fast across the region. 

Even as countries and territories around the basin hit an impressive 69-straight weeks of maintaining mostly closed cases, the Omicron variant’s impact is being immediately felt.

So far, checks across the Caribbean by Our Today, have noted the confirmation of Omicron in Cuba, Bermuda, Trinidad and Tobago, US Virgin Islands, Martinique, Guadeloupe, French Guiana, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, The Bahamas, Curaçao, Aruba, Cayman Islands, Barbados and St Martin. 

The variant of concern is presumed ‘present’ in the local populations of Guyana, St Lucia, Suriname, Sint Maarten and Jamaica. 

The Caribbean, destitute of ‘coronavirus-free’ territories, recorded over twice as many new infections (102,461) than closed cases (49,494) over the last 21 days.

Analysis of regional data finds all but two 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. 

As at 4:48 pm Greenwich Meridian Time (GMT) on Thursday, December 30, collated data from respective health departments across the region has indicated a combined total of 2,286,810 confirmed cases of COVID-19.

Of that number, some 1,837,209 cases, or roughly 80.34 per cent, have officially been declared closed. There are an estimated 449,601 active cases regionally.

The statistics were largely the result of patients across the Caribbean reporting a full recovery from the infectious disease (1,758,342 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 30,201.

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

Confirmed cases to date: 2,286,810
Deaths: 30,201
Recoveries: 1,807,008*
Active cases: 449,601*

*—Data from Health Departments and Agencies across the Caribbean. (Full or partial recovery statistics have not been forthcoming from Puerto Rico, Guadeloupe, St Martin, French Guiana, Saint-Barthélemy and Martinique)

Cuba: 328 new cases; 965,571 confirmed. 8,322 patients have died. (956,176 recoveries)

Dominican Republic: 998 new cases; 417,268 confirmed. 4,246 patients have died. (407,780 patients have recovered)

Puerto Rico: 8,203 new cases; 243,617 confirmed. 3,295 patients have died. (*No information available on recoveries)

Jamaica: 365 new cases; 93,591 confirmed. 2,470 patients have died. (65,508 recoveries)

Trinidad and Tobago: 465 new cases; 90,829 confirmed. 2,825 patients have died. (72,093 recoveries)

Guadeloupe: 543 new cases; 56,776 confirmed. 751 patients have died. (2,250 recoveries)

Suriname: 240 new cases; 52,031 confirmed. 1,189 patients have died. (49,084 recoveries)

French Guiana: 361 new cases; 48,399 confirmed. 339 patients have died. (9,995 recoveries)

Martinique: 163 new cases; 48,123 confirmed. 777 patients have died. (124 recoveries)

Guyana: 87 new cases; 39,238 confirmed. 1,051 patients have died. (37,544 recoveries)

Belize: 333 new cases; 32,067 confirmed. 597 patients have died. (30,545 recoveries)

Barbados: 227 new cases; 28,063 confirmed. 260 patients have died. (26,848 recoveries)

Haiti: Nine new cases; 25,985 confirmed. 766 patients have died. (23,289 recoveries)

The Bahamas: 65 new cases; 24,269 confirmed. 716 patients have died. (21,789 recoveries)

Curaçao: 555 new cases;  20,199 confirmed. 187 patients have died. (17,674 recoveries)

Aruba: 667 new cases; 19,021 confirmed. 181 patients have died. (16,731 recoveries)

St Lucia: 63 new cases; 13,473 confirmed. 295 patients have died. (12,950 recoveries)

Cayman Islands: 361 new cases; 8,818 confirmed. 11 patients have died. (4,877 recoveries)

US Virgin Islands: 248 new cases; 8,725 confirmed. 88 patients have died. (7,644 recoveries)

Dominica: 92 new cases; 6,720 confirmed. 47 patients have died. (6,448 recoveries)

Grenada: 64 new cases; 6,073 confirmed. 200 patients have died. (5,685 recoveries)

Bermuda: No new cases; 6,014 confirmed. 106 patients have died. (5,674 recoveries)

St Vincent and the Grenadines: Seven new cases; 5,850 confirmed. 81 patients have died. (5,228 recoveries)

Sint Maarten: 107 new cases; 5,054 confirmed. 75 patients have died. (4,653 recoveries)

Antigua and Barbuda: 23 new cases; 4,259 confirmed. 118 patients have died. (4,060 recoveries)

St Martin: 16 reported new cases; 4,008 confirmed. 56 patients have died. (1,399 recoveries)

Turks & Caicos Islands: No new cases; 3,283 confirmed. 26 patients have died. (3,125 recoveries)

British Virgin Islands: 36 new cases; 3,256 confirmed. 39 patients have died. (2,942 recoveries)

St Kitts and Nevis: 41 new cases; 2,918 confirmed. 28 patients have died. (2,784 recoveries)

Saint-Barthélemy: Nine new cases; 1,621 confirmed. Six patients have died. (462 recoveries)

Anguilla: 17 new cases; 1,646 confirmed. Five patients have died. (1,605 recoveries)

Montserrat: No new cases; 45 confirmed. One patient has died. (42 recoveries)

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