Last Updated on August 9, 2020, 10:47 PM AST by Anthony Morris
Jamaica has crossed the 1,000 COVID-19 case mark after 16 new cases were recorded and the number of total cases became 1,003.
Jamaica is the second CARICOM country after Haiti to cross 1,000 COVID-19 cases.
As per the Ministry of Health of Jamaica, 10 out of the 16 new cases are females while six are males, and their ages range from 12 years to 42 years.
Nine cases out of the 16 new cases are imported cases, and they belong to St James, St Ann Kingston and St Andrew and St Mary.
Two out of the 16 new cases are contacts of confirmed cases, one of them belongs to Clarendon, and the other belongs to St James.
Five cases are still under investigation.
Meanwhile, the number of recoveries in the country is 745, while there are presently 190 active cases, which include six patients who are moderately ill.
Around 55 patients have been sent back to their countries of origin, and 13 people have died due to the virus.
This latest update has come after a call from Prime Minister Andrew Holness for the Jamaicans to be more responsible while adhering to the infection control and prevention measures which have been put in place for slowing the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus.
After a sharp increase in the cases of the virus in Jamaica, Holness warned that the complacency can erode the success gained in controlling COVID-19, which would result in a second and even more dangerous outbreak of the virus across the island.
He said that Jamaica’s success could easily become its failure.
If the country believes that because it had a low death rate and relatively low number of infection and that the worst time has passed, then it would be like fooling the people and lulling them into a state of complacency, which would bring a second wave of the virus which could potentially be way more dangerous than the first wave.
The Prime Minister stated this while he was speaking at a ceremony in St. James on Friday.
Anthony Morris covers stories related to politics and regional developments. His in-depth reporting about governance and reforms makes him stand out in regional journalism, with a deep analysis of political trends and their impact on Caribbean communities.
