Coronavirus: What's Happening In Haiti?

On March 19th, the first two cases of coronavirus were detected in Haiti. What has happened since that point? I didn't find many recent articles about Haiti while searching the Internet, but I did come across a couple, which I'll discuss below.

At least per Worldometer, the COVID-19 case count is around 6,000. Now, of course, at this point we can assume the actual case count is much higher. And even though the case count is no doubt far higher, news reports are actually indicating that there might be some good news for the country.



The reason we can assume that the case count is much higher is based on this Miami Herald (Jun 8) article:

The deadly novel coronavirus is so prevalent in Haiti, where a fever has been raging for weeks, that a top authority on public health is now saying there’s no need to test anymore to declare that someone is infected.

. . . Since Haiti confirmed its first two infections on March 19, the number of laboratory confirmed cases have spiked to 3,334 with 51 deaths in the population of nearly 11 million. The country, however, has only tested 7,351 suspected cases . . . 

. . . The medical aid group Doctors Without Borders/Medecins Sans Frontieres said while the rise is alarming, the real infection numbers are most likely higher. Official statistics, for example, aren’t capturing those dying undiagnosed for the virus or whose deaths in rural and slum communities, after they’d experiencing COVID-19 symptoms, are going unreported.

Per Worldometer, the number of tests conducted in Haiti has now increased to over 11,000. For a population of 11 million that definitely isn't very many tests.

The article goes into why not doing testing is so controversial. A main reason is that the country isn't trying to manage the spread of the virus. One thing that isn't discussed in the article is: does Haiti have the resources to do widespread testing? If you don't have limited resources, it might be better to concentrate efforts on those who are sick and need care.

Of course, without knowing how widespread the virus is, it can lead to potentially unwise decisions. According to Juno7 (Jun 29) Haiti is largely lifting restrictions:

Toussaint Louverture International Airport and the 4 border points between Haiti and the Dominican Republic will be reopened from June 30. Textile factories are allowed to operate at full capacity from July 6. Barrier measures will always be maintained in these areas since the coronavirus is still in the country, he stressed.

Still according to the Head of State, the curfew is maintained but between midnight and 4 am.

You can only lock down your country for so long so opening textile factories is probably a necessity, but is that true about opening up borders?

But what's the good news? The answer is that even though the virus is far more widespread than what is being tracked by Worldometer, the country might avoid a high number of deaths. Per Reuters (via Yahoo) (Jun 28):

Less than 9% of the population of Latin America and the Caribbean - and just 4.5 % in Haiti - is aged 65 and above. That compares with 20% in the European Union and 16% in North America.

This may help explain why Haiti has so far defied early predictions of a devastating death toll, according to Ronald Laroche, a doctor who set up and runs a network of low-cost health centers and hospitals in Haiti.

Poor living conditions have likely also helped people build resilience while the hot and humid tropical climate may have reduced the virus' virulence.

Now, from what I've read about Yemen (which is another poor country and in the middle of a civil war), I'm not buying this "poor living conditions have likely also helped people build resilience" argument. Yet, I think the good news is that it doesn't appear that the death toll is extreme.

Now the article does mention that deaths have doubled since mid-May so we still might see some bad news in terms of deaths coming out of the country.