It may just be a signal of worse yet to come, as the Caribbean finds itself at dangerous tipping point this week with countries across the region recording over one million coronavirus (COVID-19) infections. 

The outbreak, which was seemingly cooling last week, has spiked in several sections of the region—fuelled by the confirmation of multiple COVID variants and dwindling vaccine stocks.

Despite the Caribbean encouragingly keeping majority closed cases for the 45th-straight week, analysis of regional data by Our Today finds 26 of the 32 affected countries and territories have reported new cases within the last 48 hours.

Additionally, in the last eight days, the new infections (56,435) far outnumbered Caribbean closed cases (38,091).

Cuba, Dominican Republic Jamaica, Puerto Rico and Trinidad and Tobago still rank as the four worst-hit territories in the Caribbean, while the British Virgin Islands has also seen a drastic spike in cases.

As at 5:52 pm Greenwich Meridian Time (GMT) on Tuesday, July 13, collated data from respective health departments across the region has indicated a combined total of 1,003,246 confirmed cases of COVID-19.

Of that number, some 703,788 cases, or roughly 70.2 per cent, have officially been declared closed. There are an estimated 299,458 active cases regionally.

The statistics were largely the result of patients across the Caribbean reporting a full recovery from the infectious disease (689,751 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 14,037.

Only Montserrat and Grenada stand unchanged as the only two Caribbean territories without active cases.

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

Dominican Republic: 535 new cases; 335,079 confirmed. 3,897 patients have died. (276,227 patients have recovered)

Cuba: 6,923 new cases; 238,491 confirmed. 1,537 patients have died. (204,810 recoveries)

Puerto Rico: 97 new cases; 140,944 confirmed. 2,555 patients have died. (*No information available on recoveries)

Jamaica: 36 new cases; 50,793 confirmed. 1,134 patients have died. (41,090 recoveries)

Trinidad and Tobago: 57 new cases; 34,822 confirmed. 941 patients have died. (27,962 recoveries)

French Guiana: 140 new cases; 28,421 confirmed. 161 patients have died. (9,995 recoveries)

Suriname: 80 new cases; 23,463 confirmed. 587 patients have died. (19,450 recoveries)

Guyana: 49 new cases; 21,002 confirmed. 497 patients have died. (19,100 recoveries)

Haiti: 75 new cases; 19,295 confirmed. 482 patients have died. (12,961 recoveries)

Guadeloupe: 112 new cases; 17,218 confirmed. 233 patients have died. (2,242 recoveries)

Belize: 43 new cases; 13,641 confirmed. 331 patients have died. (12,934 recoveries)

The Bahamas: 55 new cases; 13,220 confirmed. 254 patients have died. (11,960 recoveries)

Martinique: 410 new cases; 12,407 confirmed. 98 patients have died. (124 recoveries)

Curaçao: Six new cases;  12,395 confirmed. 126 patients have died. (12,221 recoveries)

Aruba: 27 new cases; 11,169 confirmed. 107 patients have died. (11,028 recoveries)

St Lucia: 12 new cases; 5,416 confirmed. 86 patients have died. (5,195 recoveries)

Barbados: 10 new cases; 4,186 confirmed. 47 patients have died. (4,074 recoveries)

US Virgin Islands: 10 new cases; 4,043 confirmed. 32 patients have died. (3,902 recoveries)

Sint Maarten: Three new cases; 2,641 confirmed. 34 patients have died. (2,588 recoveries)

Bermuda: No new cases; 2,521 confirmed. 33 patients have died. (2,477 recoveries)

Turks & Caicos Islands: No new cases; 2,436 confirmed. 18 patients have died. (2,400 recoveries)

St Martin: 51 new cases; 2,373 confirmed. 38 patients have died. (1,399 recoveries)

St Vincent and the Grenadines: One new case; 2,248 confirmed. 12 patients have died. (2,121 recoveries)

Antigua and Barbuda: No new cases; 1,266 confirmed. 42 patients have died. (1,222 recoveries)

British Virgin Islands: 326 new cases; 1,147 confirmed. Three patients have died. (312 recoveries)

Saint-Barthélemy: Four new cases; 961 confirmed. One patient has died. (462 recoveries)

Cayman Islands: Four new cases; 619 confirmed. Two patients have died. (613 recoveries)

St Kitts and Nevis: Eight new cases; 538 confirmed. Three patients have died. (400 recoveries)

Dominica: Two new cases; 199 confirmed. (194 recoveries)

Anguilla: No new cases; 111 confirmed. (109 recoveries)

Countries without active cases

Grenada: No active cases. (Previously confirmed 161 cases, one patient died)

Montserrat: No active cases. (Previously confirmed 20 cases, one patient died)