Haiti reached 8,016 confirmed cases of coronavirus this Friday, with a total of 196 deaths, after registering 19 new cases on the last day.
This Caribbean country has a total of 21,999 suspected cases, 67 of which are new, with a fatality rate of 2.4%, according to the latest bulletin from the Ministry of Health.
Of the 8,016 confirmed cases, 5,571 are in the department of Oeste, where Port-au-Prince is located; followed by the departments of Artibonite, with 468, and the Center, with 411 accumulated cases.
Haiti has been relatively little affected by the pandemic, according to the assessment of the country’s authorities, although the health system continues to have a very limited capacity to perform diagnostic tests.
According to the authorities, one of the biggest threats to the country is the arrival of Haitians returning from the Dominican Republic, due to the high prevalence of the pandemic in the neighboring country.
In Haiti, the vast majority of people do not respect safety measures, such as the use of masks, or hand washing and social distance.
On June 29, the Government launched a plan to reopen the economy and on August 10, schools were reopened, after five months of closure.
The United States Government, through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), announced that it has provided one million dollars to the American Red Cross to help Haiti respond to the pandemic.
Through this project, the American Red Cross will support the Haitian Red Cross in the implementation of the response to COVID-19 in accordance with the national plan of the Haitian government.
“We want to make sure that Haitian families have the information, support and resources they need to prevent the spread of COVID-19,” said the US Ambassador to Haiti, Michele Sison, in this statement.
The Haitian Red Cross will disseminate messages on hand washing and other hygiene measures, install hand washing kiosks in public spaces, and distribute soap, buckets and other hygiene products to households at risk.
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