Hospitalisations soar during COVID fourth wave

As the daily number of infections and positivity rate soars to an all-time high, Prime Minister Andrew Holness has maintained that there will be no adjustment to the existing COVID-19 containment measures to restrict the spread of the deadly virus.

Currently, Jamaica is experiencing a fourth wave of the coronavirus which has affected hospitals. The St Ann's Bay Regional Hospital reported that 40 of its healthcare workers have called in sick due to COVID-19. Dr Brian James, president of the Medical Association of Jamaica, said that there has been a dramatic increase in hospitalisations.

"Two weeks ago, it was 80 people in hospital, now it's 307 patients who are COVID positive who are in the hospital system at the moment. So, because the healthcare workers are all getting sick and are going off on quarantine or isolation, there is a shortage of people to do the work, to take care of COVID-19 patients and do the normal COVID-19 work that the hospital has, whether there is a surge or not. It is approaching a crisis situation in the health care system," James told THE STAR.

Additionally, he theorised that persons may ignore getting tested for COVID-19 and may mistake their symptoms for the flu. James strongly advises members of the public that if they start experiencing flu-like symptoms, they should assume that they have contracted the novel coronavirus and get tested.

"A lot of people, including some of the healthcare workers, seem to believe that they are having flu and quite a number of them who have been told to go and get a COVID-19 swab done have turned up to be positive. When I checked with the University [Hospital of the West Indies] about what they are seeing, in terms of the flu, they are telling me that they have not seen any significant number of flu cases in recent times, so it doesn't appear that there is any flu going around," he said.

James believes the work from home policy could be reinstated as the virus' Omicron variant is highly contagious and would reduce transmission levels.