Four elderly men are the latest reported fatalities from COVID-19.
They are a: 76 year-old man from St. Ann; a 79 year-old man from Hanover; a 73 year-old man from St Catherine; and an 86-year-old man from Trelawny.
Two other deaths are being investigated, the Ministry of Health and Wellness reports. The overall death count from the disease is now 760, since March 2020.
Saturday’s report showed an increase in the number of people hospitalised over Friday’s figures, with 258 people now being treated, compared to 234 on Friday. Thirty-two are critically ill, also an increase over Friday’s numbers, which were at 26.
However, hospitalisations are far less than they were even just two weeks ago, when the numbers were excess of 400 cases.
The positivity rate also remains under 20 per cent, with Saturdays data showing that 19.6 per cent of samples tested were positive. In total, there were 137 new cases of COVID-19, tipping the country’s overall case count, since March 2020, to just above 45,000.
The majority of cases continue to be recorded in the Corporate Area, which accounted for 26 of the new cases, followed by its neighbour to the west, St Catherine with 22. Portland, which normally records among the lowest cases, was third with 16 new cases; Clarendon had 15 and St James 14. All other parishes recorded single-digit numbers of new cases: Westmoreland and Manchester had eight; St Mary, seven; St Ann, six; Trelawny, five and St. Thomas, two.
The number of people recovered also increased by 128, pushing the overall number of people who have recovered from the disease to 20,519 or 45.6 per cent of persons who have tested positive.
There are currently 23,395 known active cases of COVID-19 in Jamaica.
