Jamaica now at 396 COVID cases

Health and Wellness Minister, Dr Chris Tufton, has announced that Jamaica now has 396 confirmed cases of the coronavirus (COVID-19), with the addition of 32 new positives over the last 48 hours.

Of the 32 new cases, there are 11 males and 21 females, with ages ranging from one-year-old to 71 years. Fifteen  are associated with the workplace cluster in St. Catherine, 11 cases are contacts of confirmed cases, one is an imported case, and five are under investigation.

Of the 396 confirmed cases, 202 are employees of the workplace cluster in St. Catherine. Their ages range from 18 to 53 years. They include 151 females and 51 males. They are primarily from the parishes of St. Catherine and Kingston and St. Andrew.

Tufton also confirmed that an employee of another BPO in Kingston has tested positive for COVID-19.

The employee, a resident of St Catherine, has been placed in isolation at a Government facility. The BPO has been temporarily closed to facilitate supervised cleaning.

Dr Tufton said the Health Departments in Kingston and St. Andrew and St. Catherine have begun contact tracing to ascertain those who may have come in contact with the employee, with a view to quarantine or isolate, test and treat, as appropriate.

Permanent Secretary in the Minister of Health, Dunstan Bryan, also revealed that the Health Ministry has received $2.8 billion for the ministry's COVID-19 response efforts. $2.5 billion has been spent so far with negotiations ongoing for additional sums for the next 6 months. 

There are currently 385 persons in isolation and 89 in quarantine in a Government facility.

Seven persons have died. Twenty-nine persons have recovered.

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