Westmoreland Records High Number Of COVID-19 Cases

Medical Officer of Health for Westmoreland, Dr. Marcia Graham, says that the fourth wave of the COVID-19 pandemic has seen a surge in the number of active cases in the parish.

Dr. Graham, who was speaking at the monthly meeting of the Westmoreland Municipal Corporation in Savanna-la- Mar recently, highlighted that as at February 10, the parish had 147 active cases, 110 of which came in the last month. During the fourth wave, she said, there was a significant increase in the number of infections, including 22 children, four hotel workers and eight healthcare workers.

“We currently have 22 confirmed cases admitted in hospital, and our hospital isolation bed occupancy is at 68 per cent. We had to activate our surge plan and make more beds available… because our isolation bed capacity was consistently over 100… . All the persons in hospital, except three, are unvaccinated,” Dr. Graham outlined.

She further noted that the hospital occupancy as at February 10 stood at 103 per cent.

“We are over capacity. The [motor vehicle and motorcycle] crashes still result in persons needing a hospital bed; the crime-related injuries still result in persons needing a hospital bed. We [also] have persons with chronic diseases that are uncontrolled that need a hospital bed and this puts pressure on the system, and so we ask that persons do all they can to avoid a hospital stay.”

Dr. Graham also informed that the field hospital located on the Savanna-la-Mar Public General Hospital grounds in the parish, which was officially handed over on February 2, is in the final phase of preparation for use and should add 35 to 40 beds.

Meanwhile, Dr. Graham said the COVID-19 positivity rate in the parish was on the decline.

“Four weeks ago, it peaked at 66.6 per cent of the tests done for COVID-19 being positive; we are now down to 42.9 per cent. That is still above the national average, but at least we are trending down, and we want to keep going down,” she emphasised.

She is encouraging persons to protect themselves and implored citizens to treat everyone as if they have the virus, as persons can be asymptomatic.

As of February 10, Dr. Graham said some 21.5 per cent of citizens in the parish were fully vaccinated, while 2.5 per cent of the Westmoreland population has received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine and awaiting their second dose.