Over 400 Samples Tested in 24 Hour period -10 New Positives and 1 More Recovery

A total of four hundred and twenty-one (421) samples were tested in the last 24 hours at the National Influenza Centre and the National Public Health Laboratory. Ninety-nine (99) samples were repeat tests for persons-of-interest and patients in quarantine and isolation respectively, while three hundred and twenty-Two (322) were new samples.

Jamaica has now tested 6,417 with 5,887 negatives and 42 samples pending. The number of new positive samples has increased by 10; bringing the total number of positive cases in Jamaica to 488 as at Thursday (May 7).

Among the 10 new cases, eight (8) were female and two (2) were male. Their ages range from four (4) years to 39 years. Six (6) persons are under investigation (including three (3) from the workplace cluster in St. Catherine) and four (4) persons, who are contacts of confirmed cases.

There are now 224 confirmed COVID-19 cases related to the St. Catherine workplace cluster. They are primarily from St. Catherine and Kingston and St. Andrew. Their ages range from 18 to 53 years. They include 168 females and 56 males.

The National Surveillance Unit of the Ministry of Health & Wellness advises that Jamaica now has 35 imported cases, 176 cases are contacts of a confirmed case (26 cases are import-related, 53 are related to local transmission cases (not epidemiologically linked), 88 are contacts of employees in the workplace cluster in St. Catherine, and 9 are contacts of confirmed cases under investigation),

Additionally, twenty (20) are local transmission cases not epidemiologically-linked, and 257 are under investigation (224 of those under investigation are linked to the workplace cluster and 33 others).

Some 300 (61%) of the confirmed cases are females and there are 188 (39%) males; while the ages of all confirmed cases range from 2 months to 87 years.

There are now 447 patients in isolation and 155 persons are in quarantine at a Government facility. Nine persons have died, while one (1) additional patient has recovered and have been released from hospital, bringing the total number of recovered and released to 58.