Sunday, President Jovenel Moïse, accompanied by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Bocchit Edmond and the Minister of Public Health, Gréta Roy Clément, participated in a videoconference with all the leaders of the Caribbean in order to adopt a common strategy to address the threat posed by coronavirus.

The Caricom Governments, through this approach, are mobilized for an effective and concerted response to this virus which is becoming more and more a real health challenge for the area.

As with many other Caribbean countries, Haiti is directly threatened by the entry into its territory of cruise ships which transport, through the port of Labadee thousands of tourists 721,000 in 2019 https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-29873-haiti-tourism-721-000-cruise-passengers-in-labadee-in-2019.html

Caricom leaders have agreed on a protocol to protect their respective populations through the adoption of prevention measures and emergency actions in the event of contamination.

Note that the Director General of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) also took part in this important videoconference

Furthermore, Sunday March 1, 2020, Rafael Sánchez Cárdenas, the Dominican Minister of Public Health confirmed the first case of imported coronavirus (COVID-19) in the Dominican Republic. He said he was a 62-year-old Italian tourist from Pesaro (Marche region, central Italy) who arrived at La Romana airport on a direct flight from Milan. Was asymptomatic (had no symptoms), but 2 days later he showed symptoms of mild flu and the next day a moderate fever. After the tests, he was confirmed as suffering from a mild form of COVID-19 and placed in solitary confinement at the Ramón de Lara military hospital (San Isidro). After investigating the displacement of this Italian, the medical authorities did not detect any other case.

COVID-19 epidemic: Global report March 2, 2020 :

Monday March 2, 2020, the number of people infected worldwide with the Coronavirus COVID-19 (laboratory confirmed cases, official source) amounted to 89,197, up 2,211 cases (+39.9%) compared to the previous day (1,580 ), https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-30158-haiti-news-zapping.html ; 3,048 deaths (+1.9%) or 69 more than the day before (2,979). Average mortality rate 3.4%. 45,146 people healed, 2,774 more than the day before. Note that the cure rate is higher than the number of new confirmed cases.

To date, there are 9,171 cases of confirmed infected people outside China (+ 28.1%), i.e. a increase of 2.011 more than the previous day, for a total of 67 countries (+4 countries compared to the previous day). Note that South Korea and Italy alone account for 6,029 cases (65.7% of all cases outside China)

128 deaths outside of China have been reported to date since the start of the epidemic (December 2019), i.e. 28 more than the previous day: 54 in Iran, 26 in South Korea, 1 in Taiwan, 1 in the Philippines, 2 in Hong Kong, 6 in Japan, 2 in France and 34 in Italy. 1 Australia. 1 Thailand, 2 USA (86 confirmed cases).

HL/ HaitiLibre