Jamaica sees increase in Moderately ill Patients with COVID-19

As at Monday (August 3), Jamaica has seen a record increase in the number of positive COVID-19 hospitalizations.

Total hospitalization, including confirmed and suspected positive cases stands at 35. This number includes eight patients who are moderately ill, representing the highest ever counted as moderately ill.

As the country manages 100 (11%) active cases, 11 new positives were identified in the last 24 hours. This brings the total number of confirmed cases on record for the island to 905. At the same time, recoveries remained at 743 (82.1%), while 50 (5.5%) cases have returned to their countries of origin.

The newly confirmed cases consist of six females and five males with ages ranging from six to 76 years. Nine 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. This case stayed in St. Ann.

Details on Recent Deaths
Two COVID-19-related deaths were announced on Sunday, August 2. One case was a 64-year-old male from Clarendon who died on July 21, 2020, while the second case was a 73-year-old female from St. Thomas who died on July 31, 2020.

Both cases were detected through the hospital respiratory surveillance system and COVID-19 confirmation came after death. 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.

Classification of Cases
The COVID-19 case record for Jamaica now includes 341 imported cases; 258 cases are contacts of confirmed cases; 44 are local transmission cases not epidemiologically linked; 236 are related to the workplace cluster in St. Catherine and 26 under investigation. Some 512 (57%) of all confirmed cases are females and 393 (43%) are males.

They range in age from two months to 87 years.

Clinical Management Summary as at 6:00 p.m. on Monday, August 3, 2020