Since last week (February 8, 2021), 312 new people with a SARS-CoV-2 infection have been reported on the CAS and BES islands: 200 on Aruba, 63 on Sint Maarten, 39 on Curaçao, 10 on Bonaire, 0 on St. Eustatius and 0 on Saba. Curaçao counted 0 to 8 positive tests per day last week. The number of active infections is still the same as last week, when 59 active infections were also reported on the island. A total of 4,652 COVID-19 infections have been reported up to February 15. One patient is admitted to the nursing ward and one to the ICU. The incidence increased to 21 reports per 100,000 subjects last week, compared to 16 / 100,000 at week 5. Surveillance of circulation of SARS-COV-2
variants so far shows one case of the VOC 1.1.7 (British) variant in Curaçao. In Aruba, the number of deaths in recent weeks has been above average. There have been since
January 31, 2021 nine COVID-19 patients died. The number of active infections has fallen to 272, of which 66 among tourists. There are 16 hospital admissions, of which 5 in the ICU. The incidence decreased last week to 156 reports per 100,000 persons, compared to 211 / 100,000 in week 5. In surveillance for circulation of variants of SARS-CoV-2 in Aruba, 10 cases of the VOC B1.1.7 (British) variant have so far detected and 3 cases of the B.1.429 (California) variant. The number of new COVID19 cases on Sint Maarten remains stable for the time being. As of February 15, 58 active infections had been recorded and 2,001 people have been confirmed with COVID-19 since the start of the epidemic. The incidence decreased in week 6 to 105 reports per 100,000 persons compared to 125 / 100,000 in week 5. There was one hospitalization. Bonaire had several new infections last week, including two tourists from the Netherlands. The number of active infections has risen to 13, out of a total of 378 COVID-19 reports on the island since the start of the epidemic. The incidence in week 6 was 46 per 100,000 persons compared to 9 / 100,000 in week 5. Both St. Eustatius and Saba have no active infection since 28 January 2021. A total of 68 people died of COVID-19 in Aruba, 27 on Sint Maarten, 22 on Curaçao and 4 on Bonaire.
Explanation about Surveillance of COVID-19 patients on the CAS-BES islands
RIVM monitors the spread of SARS-CoV-2 in the Caribbean part of the kingdom by means of surveillance. The Caribbean part of the kingdom consists of the countries of Curaçao, Aruba and Sint Maarten (CAS islands), and the public entities Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba (BES islands). In a collaboration between doctors, laboratories and the Municipal or Community Health Services (GGDs), information is collected about persons (patients) with a positive SARS-CoV-2 test result. This information has been supplied by the CAS and BES islands to the RIVM and stored in the COVID-19 case register Dutch Caribbean (date: February 15, 2021). Figures 1 and 2 of this report, like Table 1, are based on this case register. Tables 1 and 2 are based on a summary of the figures that are publicly shared daily by the CAS and BES islands. The CAS and BES islands also keep track of whether a person with a positive result for SARS-CoV-2 has recovered. This makes it possible to display the number of active cases at the moment (table 1). This is the number of positive people who have not yet recovered at the time of reporting.
Disclaimer
This weekly report has been compiled with the greatest possible care but may nevertheless contain errors. Reactions to this overview are welcome. The report is generated on the basis of line lists that are sent daily by the GGDs on the BES and CAS islands and are included in the IHR COVID-19 case register Dutch Caribbean. Sometimes reports of tests (results) and whether new patients are made to RIVM a day or a few days later than they actually took place or were confirmed. Anyone with complaints can have themselves tested. However, it is plausible that not all people with a SARS-CoV-2 infection will also be tested. The actual numbers may therefore be higher than the numbers listed here.
Contact:
RIVM COVID-19 surveillance team:
COVID-19EPI@rivm.nl
COVID-19 CAS-BES islands 15-02-2021. Source: RIVM 2
Figure 1. Total number of reported persons with a positive SARS-CoV-2 test result on BES and CAS islands, by first day of illness. Of 7992 patients, the date of the test result is included as the first day of illness.
BonaireSabaSint Maarten
CuraçaoSint EustatiusAruba
Figure 2. Number of reported persons with a positive SARS-CoV-2 test result on the BES and CAS islands since 1 July, by first day of illness. From 7955 paIn patients, the date of the test result is recorded as the first day of illness.
Figure 3. Number of infections per 100,000 inhabitants per week on Curaçao, Aruba, St Maarten and Bonaire.
Aruba Bonaire Curacao SXM
Figure 3: Number of infections reported per 100,000 inhabitants per week on Curaçao, Aruba, St Maarten and Bonaire. The above lines concern the 3-week average incidence per 100,000 persons per island, including the population of undocumented migrants per island. The data come from the SARS-CoV-2 IHR daily overview Dutch Caribbean of the RIVM (15-02-2021). Because the islands make corrections to the data, the figures in this graph may deviate from the statistics presented by the islands. Due to the low numbers of infections on Saba and St Eustatius, these islands are not included in the above graph.
Table 1: Current number of active COVID-19 cases, number of confirmed COVID-19 infections, number of hospital admissions1 and number of deaths in total and reported since last week on the BES and CAS islands
BES- / CAS- Current Reports Hospital Deceased Reports Hospital Deceased
islands active cases recordings recordings 3
Aruba 272 7438 294 68 200 – 4
Bonaire 13 378 15 4 10 – 1
Curaçao 59 4652 127 22 39 – 1
Saba 0 6 1 0 0 – 0
St. Eustatius 0 20 0 0 0 – 0
Sint Maarten 58 2001 127 27 63 – 0
1 The number of hospital admissions is determined from the case registers, see page 1 for an explanation of the case register. These are not always completely complete and may lag behind
reality. The other figures are up to date.
2 These were reported to RIVM between 8 February and 15 February.
3 The number of hospital admissions in the past week is not shown due to the reporting delay in the case register. The current number of admissions is shown in Table 2
Table 2: Current status of the hospital admissions of COVID-19 patients, BES and CAS islands.
BES / CAS islands Total admitted Intensive care unit
Aruba 16 11 5
Bonaire 1 1 0
Curaçao 2 1 1
Saba 0 0 0
St. Eustatius 0 0 0
Sint Maarten 1 1 0