Five people died from COVID-19 in Jamaica yesterday, as the country recorded another deluge of positive cases.
Data from the Ministry of Health and Wellness shows Jamaica recorded 458 cases of the infectious and deadly disease, taking the overall total number of infections since March last year pass a new milestone to 21,382.
The five deaths comprise two deaths from St Elizabeth of 47 year-old woman and a 64 year-old man; the deaths of two women aged 64 and 55 from St Catherine; and an 87 year-old man from Trelawny.
Their deaths have increased the total number fatalities from COVID-19 to 396.
One other death is under investigation and two other fatalities were deemed coincidental.
Two hundred and forty-five people are now in hospital, as hospitals scramble to cope with the huge upsurge in positive cases. There has been a 45 per cent increase over the previous day in the numbers of patients critically ill, which have increased to 29 people, and 68 are experiencing moderate effects of the disease.
The rate of positive cases from samples tested is now 25 per cent, as all parishes, for a second consecutive day, recorded new cases.
Kingston and St Andrew recorded the most number of new cases with 131, followed by St James with 50 and Catherine with 47 new positive COVID-19 cases. Clarendon had 43 new cases, St Ann 40, Trelawny 29, Westmoreland 27, Manchester 25, St Thomas 18, Portland 17, St Elizabeth nine and St Mary eight.
The number of active cases is now 7,486, up five per cent in the past 24 hours.
Forty-eight people recovered from COVID-19 yesterday.
