Jamaica Records Five New Cases Of COVID-19

Jamaica has recorded five new cases of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) within the last 24 hours, bringing the total number to 478.

The update was given by Minister of Health and Wellness, Dr. the Hon. Christopher Tufton, on Wednesday (May 6), during the COVID-19 virtual press briefing, held at the Ministry’s head office, in Kingston.

He also reported that eight more persons have recovered from the virus, which has increased the recovery cases to 57.

“We continue to see patients with COVID-19 recovering at an increasing rate and that is a very positive development that I think Jamaicans would want to understand and continue to be updated on,” he said, noting that there are no patients currently in the intensive care unit.

With regard to the new cases, Dr. Tufton said one is an 18 year-old male from St. Mary, who is a contact of a previously confirmed case. The others are three men who range from 18 to 69 years, and one woman, who is 17 years old.

The Minister further informed that Jamaica now has 35 imported cases; 171 cases that are contacts of a confirmed case; 11 that are local transmission cases, not linked epidemiologically; and 257 cases are under investigation. From that total, he said 221 are linked to the workplace cluster at Alorica call centre in Portmore, St. Catherine, and four are to be classified.

“So far, 6,095 samples have been tested. Of the 6,095, in addition to the 478 that have returned positive results, 5,576 are negative and 41 are pending,” he noted.

Within the last 24 hours, 102 samples were tested.