KINGSTON, Jamaica— The Ministry of Health and Wellness says an additional 20 Jamaicans have tested positive for the novel coronavirus (COVID-19).

The additional confirmed cases include five males and 15 females. Two of the cases are imported — one is a two-year-old Male from St James and the other is a 43-year-old female from St Catherine.

The other 18 individuals are from St Catherine and arise out of an investigation of BPO site, Alorica, from which there have been 33 prior confirmed cases, the health ministry informed.

This brings to 52, the number of confirmed cases working at Alorica. There are 47 individuals from St Catherine, three from Kingston and St Andrew, one from Clarendon and one from Portland.

According to the ministry, there are now 33 imported cases, 34 cases are contacts of a confirmed case, six are local transmission cases not epidemiologically linked and 52 cases are under the Alorica investigation. Some 51 (41 per cent) confirmed cases are Male and 74 (59 per cent) are female, while the ages of all confirmed cases range from two to 87 years old.

The health departments across the island are currently tracing approximately 432 close contacts of the confirmed cases.

The National Influenza Centre has also advised that to date, a total of 1,391 samples have been tested including those for severe acute respiratory infections (SARI) resulting in 1,258 negative and 125 positive, with eight samples pending.

The total number of persons recovered and released from hospital is 21 while there are five deaths. The fifth death is a 63-year-old female from Portland, who died on Tuesday.

Currently 66 patients remain in isolation and 21 persons are in quarantine at a government facility.