Kralendijk/Oranjestad- Both St. Eustatius and Bonaire have conducted a total of 7 COVID-19 test with negative results. Both island thankfully remain free of the dangerous ‘Corona’-virus.

The fact that both islands have conducted a total of 7 test is however curious, taking into account that the population of Bonaire with about 20.000 residents is nearly 6 times bigger than that of St. Eustatius. This means that, relative to population size, much more tests have been conducted.

Another strange similarity is the amount of people in mandatory quarantine: 67 on St. Eustatius, versus 84 on Bonaire. This means that on St. Eustatius about 1.9% of the population is currently in quarantine, versus less than 0.43% in Bonaire.

This while Bonaire had considerably more and larger airplanes which were serving the island, before the shutdown of airspace for incoming passengers was implemented. Therefore, one would expect Bonaire to have considerably more persons in quarantine than is the case in Bonaire.

Further analysis?

Although the superficial comparison of raw figures with complex matters like this can be dangerous, further analysis seems to be in order to determine how it is possible that both islands show similar figures in both number of tests conducted and people in quarantine, when one population is so much bigger than the other.