KRALENDIJK – Although the number of new Corona infections on Bonaire is still not that bad in an absolute numbers, with an average of about 16 new cases per day, they differ sharply from the situation on nearby Curaçao and Aruba.

The Dutch National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) reports that last week 457 people per 100,000 inhabitants on Bonaire received a positive SARS-CoV-2 test result, again a slight increase compared to 423 per 100,000 a week earlier (September 30 – October 6). The daily positive test rate has decreased slightly in the past week, from 17.0% to 13.4%.

On Curaçao during the same period only 111 people per 100,000 inhabitants received a positive result, on St. Maarten 90 people per 100,000 inhabitants and in Aruba 82 people per 100,000 inhabitants. The infection rate on Bonaire is therefore more than four times higher on Bonaire comparted to Curaçao, and almost 6 times as high as on Aruba.

Silent

In the meantime, Local Government is mum when it comes to the high number of infections. The Communications Department sends the same meaningless message to the press every day, stating only that “the source of the infections is known”, followed by the number of new infections and total ‘active’ cases on the island.