The regional health agency reports 43 positive cases in Saint-Barthélemy between January 4 and 10, including 29 residents.
The Covid-19 epidemic is rebounding in Saint-Barthélemy. From January 4 to 10, 43 people tested positive against 15 the previous week and 7 on average during the other weeks of December. Among these 43 cases, 29 are residents of Saint-Barthélemy.
In all, 251 cases of Covid-19 have been confirmed on the island since the start of the epidemic. The incidence rate is clearly increasing: 439 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, a figure that must be interpreted with caution, given the low number of inhabitants (see below). The positivity rate is on the rise, it is at the limit of the vigilance threshold, it goes to 5.05% (against 1.97% the previous week). Three clusters are being investigated by the health authorities.
On our website, we noticed on Tuesday January 12 that 41 positive tests had been found in the laboratory and 21 at the Red Cross screening center between January 4 and 10. That’s over 43! When this raw data arrives at the Regional Health Agency, it tracks down duplicates (positive people were able to go to the laboratory and to the drive of Saint-Jean), smoothes the data compared to its previous calculations (the day of the test is not necessarily the day of the test return) to give them consistency and to be able to compare these figures with those of the previous weeks.
The agency also notes that if certain pharmacies or liberal health professionals do not record the results of the tests on the health insurance platform (SI-DEP), this distorts the data at the margin, but not the state. the dynamics of virus propagation. 43, therefore, this is the official figure verified by the teams of the Regional Health Agency.
For its part, Saint-Martin records 41 new cases in the first week of January and has 1,076 cumulative cases of Covid-19 since the start of the epidemic.
A record incidence rate in Saint-Barth?
The image has circulated on island social networks: Saint-Barthélemy at the top of the regions most affected by the Covid-19? This is what an infographic shared on the BFMTV channel said on Monday. What alarm everyone! In fact, the figures come from Santé Publique France, which depends on the Ministry of Health. For the period from January 3 to 9, the organization estimates that the incidence rate is 502 positive cases per 100,000 inhabitants, or ten times the alert threshold.
This figure should obviously be taken with great care, given the size and population of the island. The incidence rate is the rate of people tested positive per 100,000 inhabitants, the more tests there are, the more the number of positive cases is important and the more the rate increases. “On the scale of the island, a new case increases the rate by 10%”, recalls the side of the ARS. This is why other indicators exist, such as the positivity rate, the virus reproduction factor or the number of clusters.
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