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CMO Encouraging Men With COVID Symptoms To Seek Medical Attention

By: , November 13, 2020
CMO Encouraging Men With COVID Symptoms To Seek Medical Attention
Photo: Donald De La Haye
Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Jacquiline Bisasor-McKenzie, speaking at the Ministry of Health and Wellness' weekly COVID Conversations digital press conference on Thursday (November 12).

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Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Jacquiline Bisasor-McKenzie, is calling on Jamaican men to seek medical attention if they are not feeling well and suspect that they have been infected with the coronavirus (COVID-19).

She said that most of the deaths related to the virus in the island, to date, are that of males at 123, compared to 102 females.

“There is a slight increase in the number of males over females, who are having severe cases and resulting deaths and this is a very important thing to note, because we know that men tend to wait a while before they seek care,” Dr. Bisasor-McKenzie noted.

“Certainly, we are seeing that we are having more deaths in the males than in females,” she said.

She was speaking at the Ministry of Health and Wellness’ weekly COVID Conversations digital press conference on Thursday (November 12).

The CMO noted, however, that overall, most deaths are occurring among the elderly population and is imploring persons within this age cohort to continue to protect themselves from becoming infected.

“Again, a precautionary word to our elderly population and especially to those persons who would have comorbidities that these are the risk factors for more severe illnesses and, certainly, this is where we’re seeing more of our deaths,” she said.

Jamaica now has 9,634 confirmed cases of COVID-19 with 506 imported cases and 9,128 locally acquired cases.

There have been 565 confirmed cases of the virus over the last two weeks. However, Dr. Bisasor-McKenzie said that the Ministry is “seeing a trending down in the weekly positivity rate [of new infections]. For the last couple of weeks, we would have been between nine and 10 per cent and so far for this week, we are 7.2 per cent”.

“That may go up a little bit or it may stay around that as the numbers come in for the rest of the week,” she said.

“We do see the number of deaths being reported now on a daily basis going down,” she added.

Last Updated: November 13, 2020

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