Jamaica Ranks Among Caribbean's Top Three Biggest Percentage Increases in COVID-19 Cases for a Second Week.

Mexico Leads As Infections Top 10,000.

The period covered for this analysis is as of 12:30PM EST on both days between April 16 - 23, 2020 and covers countries or islands that have a Caribbean coastline and/or are members of CARICOM. As a result, numbers updated afterwards will not be reflected in the data.

FINDINGS:-

• Between April 16-23, Jamaica recorded the second-biggest weekly percentage jump in COVID-19 cases. Of 42 islands or countries in the 18º North dataset, Jamaica ranked among the top three for the second week in a row. Reported infections rose by 76% to 252 from 143. A cluster at a call center is mostly responsible for the increase. Testing capacity increased as well with a new machine, following criticisms of low levels of testing.

• Mexico’s positive cases topped 10,000 this week. The number of confirmed positive cases moved to 10,544 from 5,847, a rise of 80%, the biggest jump in our dataset. This week, Reuters reported that Mexico had entered what the government dubbed “Phase 3”, the most serious stage of the spread of the coronavirus. At the end of March, The Washington Post highlighted low levels of testing in the country.

• Eleven nations recorded no new cases this week.

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