MANDEVILLE, Manchester — The Tropics View Hotel at Hatfield, on the western fringe of Mandeville, is being used, temporarily, as a quarantine facility for people who may have been exposed to the COVID-19 virus.

Regional director for the Southern Regional Health Authority (SRHA) Michael Bent told the Jamaica Observer yesterday that none of the six people in quarantine at Tropics View have tested positive for the novel coronavirus.

“These are people who are not COVID-19 positive and are not ill, but who may have been exposed … so out of an abundance of caution, they are being kept there (quarantine facility) for 14 days during which time they are tested,” said Bent.

“If after 14 days the tests are negative then they are free to go, if there is a positive test then the person will go into isolation at another facility,” Bent told the Observer by telephone.

Last month, the SRHA announced that the Kendal Camp and Conference Centre at Kendal, Manchester, was being used as a transitional centre for COVID-19 patients who were not ill, and were awaiting a second negative test before being cleared to go home.

The SRHA encompasses Manchester, Clarendon and St Elizabeth.

— Garfield Myers