What you must know about COVID-19 trend on SXM
It’s not clear that we have an effective plan to handle the COVID-19 pandemic that we are faced with throughout this world health crisis as we near the end of the year 2020. We are not hearing from CPS or the Minister of Health what their strict policies are to reduce the transmission and fight the spread. The most recent report indicates the average increase on a weekly basis is just under 10 per day and represent a 60% increase infections during the last 10 days.
Up to November 13th St. Maarten is showing 923 positive cases in total; currently there are 64 active cases and 24 dead as a result of the virus. We are told, CPS is planning additional public health messaging campaigns in the coming weeks to remind individuals of the need to remain compliant with their public health measures – wearing masks, social distancing and washing hands – especially as we move into high season. Yes that is helpful, but not enough or even enforced by any means as a strict policy.
Our Airport is open to all traffic from around the world; the Minister of Economic Affairs and Tourism has extended the opening hours of business up to midnight, with Casinos allowed to conduct business up to 2 AM in the morning. One would get the feeling that we’re on our way to normalcy but the number of positive cases on a daily basis continue to show steady Coronavirus spread and the total number of persons testing positive thus far nearing 1000.
Unless we activate a strict policy designed to reduce the transmission of COVID-19 we can expect to be overwhelmed with a surprising amount of cases that may force us to take harsher measures and restrictions.
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