The Ministry of Health and Wellness in Jamaica is actively monitoring over one hundred Covid-19 cases on the island as the numbers continue to climb amid a high recovery rate. Jamaica’s Health and Wellness Minister, Dr. Christopher Tufton shared at a recent news conference that the ministry is assessing the risk of Covid-19 from tourist markets and applying a risk profile.
“While certain variables may remain fairly constant there are other variables that are changing and some of those variables are not totally in our control,” Tufton said. ” So, even though we had a point seven percent positive rate for the numbers that came in – I think about fourteen thousand or so over that period [in June], the truth is when you look external to Jamaica, despite the efforts of our team members, the reality is the primary source market whether, for residents or non-residents, that risk profile is also changing.”
Several persons have died from COVID-19 to date and currently, there is one patient who is moderately ill. It is for this reason that more corporate companies are stepping in to assist, Namely, ScotiaBank who recently made a donation to the University Hospital of the West Indies.
“We really owe a debt of gratitude to all health care workers, nurses, doctors, administrators,” said President and Chief Executive Officer of Scotiabank. “You all work miracles every day and so these ventilators, we are happy that we are able to contribute and the high flow nasal oxygen system-happy to contribute that as well.”
The Flow nasal oxygen machine will be used in the early management of patients with respiratory symptoms.
“During this time, we have still had to take patients from many of the adjoining islands so it’s not just COVID patients but during the crisis, we had to have air ambulances take patients here and use this intensive care unit,” shared Medical Chief of Staff at the University Hospital of the West Indies, Dr. Carl Bruce. “What we continue to say is it’s not just a Jamaican system you are helping, you are helping us regionally because not only do we take the patients regionally, but we take students, we train our doctors and nurses from across the region.”
Globally, Covid-19 has resulted in the death of hundreds of thousands of people and millions have been infected. It is for this reason that the World Health Organization is now calling for greater enforcement of mask-wearing, social distancing, and contact tracing.
