ANOTHER NURSE DIES FROM COVID

A40-year-old Jamaican nurse has died from COVID-19. The health worker, Annette White Best, worked on the frontline at the Percy Junor Hospital in Manchester.

White Best died from complications of COVID on Tuesday, less than a week after falling ill. She reportedly reported to work last Wednesday and began showing virus symptoms the next day.

“We mourn with her family members, her family and friends, with the staff of the Percy Junor Hospital, and indeed the entire public health fraternity. Her passing is very regrettable, and at such a young age,” Health Minister Dr Christopher Tufton said.

“She was on the frontline giving all the efforts, the commitment, the dedication to fighting COVID, to saving lives, and we honour her and our memory for that contribution,” the minister said.

FOURTH NURSE TO HAVE DIED

White Best is the fourth nurse to have died from COVID- 19 since the pandemic reached Jamaica’s shores last March. Tufton said that the loss brings into focus the risk to which public health workers are exposed as they seek to serve the population.

“It is a hazard of the job and we always fear this worst outcome,” the minister said.

The Ministry of Health and Wellness has reported 1,268 related deaths as of Wednesday. Twenty-seven deaths have been reported in the past two days.

Jamaica is currently experiencing a third wave of the virus, and the health ministry said that current numbers are at the levels where they peaked in March and April when Jamaica experienced the second wave of the virus.

Jacquiline Bisasor- McKenzie, the chief medical officer, said that there has been an increase in the number of admissions to hospitals across the country. The CMO said that the average number of admissions per day is 70, which is higher than the average admissions at the peak of the last surge in March and April.

During the last surge, bed occupancy peaked at just more than 700. Bisasor- McKenzie said that more than 600 beds are occupied with persons who are either confirmed to have the disease or have been categorised as suspected.

“We are fast approaching that peak which would put us in a very dangerous zone in terms of the threat to the care for COVID patients in our hospitals,” the CMO said.

She said that the level of transmission is “very high” and the positivity rate is “dangerously high”.