Jamaica records another COVID death

Jamaica yesterday recorded its ninth COVID-19 death. The deceased is a 72-year-old male from Kingston and St Andrew. The National Surveillance Unit of the Ministry of Health and Wellness also reported yesterday six additional samples had tested positive for the coronavirus.

This brings the number of COVID-19 cases in Jamaica to 469.

There are now 439 patients in isolation and 88 are in quarantine at a government facility. Five additional patients have recovered and have been released from hospital, bringing the total recovered and released to 38.

New cases

Of the six new cases, there are four males and two females, with ages ranging from nine to 37 years. All the cases are from St Mary and are contacts of a confirmed case.

Jamaica now has 35 imported cases; 161 are contacts of a confirmed case; nine are local transmission cases not epidemiologically linked; and 264 are under investigation. Two hundred and sixteen of those under investigation are linked to the workplace cluster in St Catherine.

Of all the cases in Jamaica, some 290 or 62 per cent, are females and 179, or 38 per cent, are males. The ages of all the confirmed cases range from two months to 87 years.

The unit also reported that the total number of samples tested to date was 5,633, with 5,126 negatives and 38 samples are pending.