Jamaica has seen a record increase in the number of positive COVID-19 hospitalizations.
That’s according to the Health and Wellness Ministry.
In a statement last evening, the ministry said “total hospitalization, including confirmed and suspected positive cases stands at 35” and “includes eight patients who are moderately ill”.
This, it says represents the highest ever number of patients counted as moderately ill.
Meanwhile, the Health and Wellness Ministry says Jamaica also recorded 11 new positive cases of COVID-19 in the latest round of testing, bringing the country’s total number of confirmed cases of the coronavirus to 9-hundred and 5.
It says the country is managing 100 active cases while 50 or 5-point-5 per cent of cases have returned to their countries of origin.
According to the Health and Wellness Ministry, recoveries remain at 7-hundred and 43 or 82-point-1 per cent.
The ministry says the newly confirmed cases consist of six females and five males with ages ranging from six to 76 years.
Nine of the newly identified cases have addresses in St. Thomas and are contacts of confirmed cases.
One case is from St. Catherine and is a contact of a confirmed case.
The remaining case is an imported case, who arrived recently on a flight from the USA.
The Health Ministry says this person stayed in St. Ann.
The ministry says the COVID-19 case record for Jamaica now includes 3-hundred and 41 imported cases, 2-hundred and 58 cases are contacts of confirmed cases, 44 are local transmission cases not epidemiologically linked, 2-hundred and 36 are related to the workplace cluster in St. Catherine and 26 are under investigation.
Some 5-hundred and 12 or 57-per cent of all confirmed cases are females and 3-hundred and 93 or 43-per cent are males.
They range in age from two months to 87 years.
In the meantime, the Health and Wellness Ministry says COVID-19 confirmation for the two deaths announced recently came after the patients died.
That declaration from the Ministry is in relation to the COVID-19 deaths announced on Sunday, August 2.
Jamaica has recorded 12 COVID-19 deaths.
It says the 64-year-old male from Clarendon, died on July 21, 2020, while the 73-year-old female from St. Thomas died on July 31, 2020.
According to the Health Ministry, both cases were detected through the hospital respiratory surveillance system.
It says the two patients had multiple co-morbidities and died within hours of presenting at the Accident and Emergency Departments of two public hospitals where they were undergoing treatment.
The Health Ministry says 69 results are pending and that no one critically ill at this time.
