Jamaican Chief Medical Officer Urges Continued COVID-19 Vigilance To Avoid Summer Surge

Dr. Jacquiline Bisasor-McKenzie, Chief Medical Officer (CMO) in the Ministry of Health and Wellness, is appealing for continued adherence to the coronavirus (COVID-19) health and safety measures during the summer period.

“We are going into a danger period. If we take the experience from last year … during the summer period, there were various activities and events that would have led to increased exposure and an increased transmission rate, so this is not the time to let go of your precautions,” she said.

She noted that “We now have 243 communities of the 783 communities that have new positive cases over the last two weeks [which is] 31 per cent of communities,”

“Where we need to get to is below five per cent for us to feel comfortable, especially approaching the summer period,” she indicated.

As of June 16, there were 49,503 confirmed cases of the virus in Jamaica, 74 newly confirmed cases, 1,023 deaths recorded, with a 2.1 per cent case fatality rate.