Jamaica at 422 confirmed COVID cases, another death recorded

The Ministry of Health and Wellness says the island has recorded its eighth COVID-19 related death. The deceased is a 63-year-old female from St Catherine, who was a contact of a confirmed case.

Additionally, twenty-six positive cases have also been recorded in the last 24 hours, bringing Jamaica's tally to 422.

 Nineteen workers from the Ministry of Health have tested positive for COVID-19. This is following the sampling and testing of over 300 employees from the Ministry's New Kingston Offices.

The buildings of the Ministry were temporarily closed for deep cleaning and sanitisation. Contact tracing was done and employees at risk for exposure were tested and placed in quarantine. Directly affected employees have been provided with counselling services and care packages.

Of the 26 new cases, there are 9 males and 17 females, with ages ranging from 8 months to 63 years. Three are employees of the workplace cluster in St. Catherine; nine are contacts of employees in the work place cluster in St. Catherine, six are contacts of other confirmed cases and eight are under investigation.

There are now 203 confirmed COVID-19 cases related to the workplace cluster in St. Catherine. Their ages range from 18 to 53 years. The cases include 153 females and 50 males, who are primarily from the parishes of St Catherine and Kingston and St. Andrew. 

Jamaica now has 35 imported cases, 125 cases are contacts of a confirmed case, 9 are local transmission cases not epidemiologically-linked and 253 are under investigation (203 of those under investigation are linked to the workplace cluster). 

There are now 427 persons in isolation and 87 in quarantine at a Government facility.Eight persons have died, while 29 patients have recovered and have been released from hospital.

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