Jamaica is now at the first stage of community spread of the deadly coronavirus pandemic, according to Health and Wellness Minister, Dr Christopher Tufton.
Speaking at the COVID-19 press conference at Jamaica House on Monday, Tufton said the ministry’s statistics are indicating that there is a spike in the number of individuals who have gone to the island’s health facilities with symptoms and have tested positive for the virus.
He said these persons have no travel history or cannot be traced to another individual who also tested positive for the virus.
Tufton said: “Since March 14, we have had some 21 cases of COVID-19 that have emerged through our sentinel sites, at our health centres or hospitals, and they have influenza, upper respiratory type symptoms.
“Once they come in, we test them and what we have discerned is that there is a growing number of those persons who are positive. This represents for us, the first stages of community spread, which we had anticipated and spoken about some ago.”
Jamaica has so far recorded 233 confirmed cases of coronavirus on the island.
Comments (0)
We appreciate your feedback. You can comment here with your pseudonym or real name. You can leave a comment with or without entering an email address. All comments will be reviewed before they are published.