Cases of COVID-19 continue to soar with the country recording 343 new cases yesterday.
There were new cases in every parish, the Ministry of Health and Wellness reports.
St Catherine confirmed the most infections yesterday, with 77, followed by Kingston and St Andrew with 52 new cases and St Ann, 35. Manchester, St James, St Elizabeth and Trelawny were next with 34, 29, 27 and 25 cases each; and Hanover, St Mary, St Thomas, Portland and Clarendon each recorded 15, 13, 12, 11 and 10 new cases. Westmoreland was the only parish that recorded a single-digit number of new COVID-19 infections, with three cases.
There are 343 other cases under investigation.
The number of new infections has increased the country’s total confirmed cases to 20,924, since March last year. There are now 7,442, active cases, with the rate of positives from samples tested close to 31 per cent.
The death rate is close to two per cent.
Jamaica recorded no new deaths in the past 24 hours, leaving the number of fatalities at 391.
However, the rising rate of infections is continuing to place pressure on the nation’s hospitals. Two hundred and fifty-seven people are being treated in hospital, 20 of whom are critically ill and another 28 are experiencing moderate effects of the disease.
Fifty-five people have recovered from infectious disease.