Dominica confirms 58 new COVID-19 cases

Roseau, Dominica: The island country reported 58 fresh cases of the COVID-19 virus on Thursday, January 6, 2022, taking the count of active infections to 649. The Ministry of Health and Wellness shares data in the COVID-19 update report.

On Thursday, six COVID-19 patients recovered and are now discharged from the hospital facility. With these recent recoveries, the total recovery rate rises to 6,603.

The data of the report further states, Dominica has reported a total of 7,299 confirmed cases of the deadliest COVID-19 mutant so far. The hospital facilities conducted a total of 131,028 COVID-19 tests, out of which 32174 cases conducted are RT-PCR tests, while 98854 tests conducted are the Rapid Antigen Tests.

In terms of the COVID-19 vaccination, 30840 individuals have received their first jab of the WHO-approved COVID-19 vaccines. On the other hand, as per the statistics, 28553 Dominicans have received their required number of the COVID-19 vaccines and are now fully immunised against the virus.

The Caribbean is among the regions that was highly affected by the coronavirus and is trying its best to revive it. Dominicas’ economy and the tourism sector are on the right track of recovery, under the leadership of Prime Minister Dr Roosvelt Skerrit.

Although, the islands’ government is not following the policy of mandate COVID-19 vaccination.

The Omicron variant has already hit the Caribbean island, but Dominica has not yet reported any case of the variant. More than 108 countries across the globe have cases of the Omicron variant.

Another new variant named ‘IHU’ has also been discovered this week only in France. World Health Organisation has noted that the study is going on, and the positive cases are at present under monitoring.

Dr Maria Van Kerkhove, the COVID-19 technical lead with the World Health Emergencies Programme during a WHO press conference, noted, “Less than one per cent of the samples that were sequenced in France are of this particular variant”.