Young persons account for highest COVID-19 cases in Jamaica
Jamaica GIS – The Ministry of Health and Wellness has reported that young persons between the ages of 20 to 29 years now account for the highest number of persons confirmed with the coronavirus (COVID-19).
Of the 20,310 persons now confirmed to have the virus in Jamaica, 4,369 (21.6 per cent) were of ages between 20 and 29 years.
National Epidemiologist, Dr Karen Webster Kerr, gave this update during the weekly COVID Conversations Press Conference, broadcast from the offices of the Ministry of Health and Wellness on Thursday (February 18).
She said persons between the ages of 30 and 39 years follow with the second highest number of cases to date, with 4,022 cases.
“When we look over time, we note that in the last few days, the number of cases exceeded what we saw in August to September. However, the rate of increase was different,” Dr. Webster Kerr said.
“Almost all parishes are greater than we were August going into September… We have to watch all parishes,” she said.
The number of confirmed cases up to Wednesday (February 17) per parish were Clarendon, with 1,167 cases; Hanover, 517 cases; Kingston and St. Andrew, with 5,762 cases; Manchester, 1,451 cases; Portland, 452 cases; St. Ann, 1,272 cases; St. Catherine, 3,975 cases; St. Elizabeth, 719 cases; St. James, 2,168 cases; St. Mary, 568 cases; St. Thomas, 674 cases; Trelawny, 674 cases, and Westmoreland, 911 cases.
There are 384 deaths related to persons who contracted the virus.
Dr. Webster Kerr said among persons who have died, 98 per cent had one or more comorbidity or risk factor, with 72 per cent over 60 years.
For his part, Minister of Health and Wellness, Dr. the Hon. Christopher Tufton, called on Jamaicans to continue observing protocols and encouraged persons who are not observing to do so.
“We’ve had a very active week and, certainly, for the past few weeks with numbers increasing to the levels that we’ve not seen before, high positivity rates which are more worrying, and we continue to encourage Jamaicans to respond to the protocols that have been advertised or announced, and we continue to work in public health with all our stakeholders,” Dr. Tufton said.
“The death rate of 1.9 per cent, to put in context, is below the global rate. I think the global rate is just over two per cent… so we are still doing better than the rest of the world, if we look at that average and make the comparison,” he added.