HEALTH Minister Renward Wells said yesterday the recent spike in COVID-19 cases can be attributed to Independence Day festivities.

His comment came after the country recorded 100 COVID-19 cases on Saturday, the most in a single day since October.

Health officials confirmed an additional 38 cases on Sunday and 81 more cases on Monday, bringing the nation’s overall tally to 13,685.

The uptick in cases comes as officials seek to arrest the third wave of the pandemic.

Yesterday, Mr Wells said since the country entered its third wave of infections, virus cases have fluctuated.

However, he said the high number of infections seen in the last few days could be attributed to recent holiday events where there were several gatherings.

“Well, this has been a roller coaster ride in regard to positive testing for COVID. You know we entered the third wave and had a dip for about two to three weeks and then we had a surge,” he said before a Cabinet meeting.

“Usually, there’s an uptick in cases about seven to eight days… 14 days out from any sort of major holiday. We have just come through the entire weekend of Independence (Day celebrations), so folks would’ve gotten together in groups on beaches and homes, celebrating our independence and obviously we would’ve expected that given the fact that we would’ve had positive cases in the country that there would’ve been an uptick.

“We’re going to be looking over this week, assessing over the data and then seeing where we are and whether we have defined clusters or anything new that is developing.”

Click here to read more at The Tribune