PARAMARIBO, Suriname (CMC) — Suriname and Guyana each registered the highest number of deaths from the coronavirus (COVID-19) last month as Haiti recorded six new deaths while St Lucia, with two more deaths, also recorded increased cases of the virus among its population.

Health authorities in Suriname said May had become the deadliest month since the COVID-19 outbreak in March last year.

They said with 10 deaths in the past 24 hours, 98 people have died from the coronavirus this month, surpassing August last year when 45 people died.

The number of infections also reached record highs also for May, with 4,571 people testing positive for COVID-19. Suriname has seen a total of 14,954 infections. In the past 24 hours, 417 people have been tested with 190 positive cases being reported.

Authorities here blame the different variants of COVID-19 for the high rate of infections with highest number of infections this month being 293 on May 28 and 10 deaths on the last day of the month.

There are 222 people in the hospitals and thirty patients are being cared for in the intensive care units. A total of 11,734 people have recovered from the virus, including 149 in the past 24 hours. There are 1,384 infected people in isolation.

The ‘total’ lockdown started here on Monday and will last until June 18.

In Guyana, the Ministry of Health has reported that four more individuals died from the COVID-19, as the country registered 90 deaths so far for the month of May.

The latest fatalities, according to the Ministry of Health, were three men and a woman between the ages 30 to 83 years old.

With these 90 deaths recorded last month so far, May is deadliest month of the pandemic. April 2021 was previously the deadliest month with a total of 66 deaths. The total number of deaths since the first death was recorded on March 11 last year is 389.

In addition to the new deaths, 42 people were infected with COVID-19 over a 24-hour period. The new infections came from 356 tests, bringing the total to 16,952, the number of people who have been infected with the disease since March last year.

The authorities said there are 23 people in the COVID-19 Intensive Care Unit (ICU), 102 people in institutional isolation, 1,916 in home isolation and nine in institutional quarantine. The number of active cases stands at 2,050.

In Haiti, the latest data made available by the Ministry of Public Health showed that there were 112 new cases and six deaths registered on May 26.

As a result, the French-speaking Caribbean Community (Caricom) country has registered a total of 14,465 confirmed cases and 317 deaths since the start of the pandemic

The number of new cases is now at 1,395 and to 52 deaths for the first 26 days of May.

In St Lucia, the Ministry of Health and Wellness said there were 14 new cases of COVID-19. It said confirmation was also received of the recovery of three individuals diagnosed with COVID19, bringing the total number of active cases currently recorded in country to date to 188. Presently, one of the active cases requires critical care at the Respiratory Hospital. The new cases bring the total number of cases diagnosed in country to date to 5067.

The Ministry of Health also reported two COVID-19 related deaths, bringing the total number of deaths in country to date to 79.

It said that a 62-year-old male from the capital Castries with underlying medical illnesses and a 69-year-old female from the Anse La Raye, on the island’s west coast, also with underlying medical illnesses, died from contracting the virus.