PORT AU PRINCE, Haiti – Haiti continued to record more cases of the coronavirus (COVID-19) on Friday with the authorities saying that the total had reached just shy of 5,000 cases since the first case was detected on March 19 this year.
The Ministry of Public Health in its daily bulletin said that 228 new cases were recorded on Friday, pushing the total to 4, 916.
It said there were also two deaths in the west and north west of the country, bringing the total to 84.
The Ministry said that 24 people had been healed of the virus that was first detected in China last December and blamed for 451,000 deaths and 8.39 people being infected worldwide.
The health authorities said that the number of active cases stood at 4,808 and that all 10 departments of the country recorded increases in their number of new cases.
They said that the number of suspected cases investigated since March 19, was now 3,813 cases.
Meanwhile, the World Health Organization (WHO) said the pandemic is now in a “new and dangerous phase” with the disease accelerating at the same time as people tire of lockdowns.
WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus urged countries and citizens to remain extremely vigilant.
“The pandemic is accelerating. More than 150,000 new cases of COVID-19 were reported to WHO yesterday — the most in a single day so far,” Tedros told a virtual press conference, adding that almost half of those cases were reported from the Americas, with large numbers also being reported from South Asia and the Middle East.
“The world is in a new and dangerous phase. Many people are understandably fed up with being at home. Countries are understandably eager to open up their societies and economies,” he said, adding “but the virus is still spreading fast, it’s still deadly and most people are still susceptible”.
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