THE headquarters of the Jamaica Defence Force (JDF) at Up Park Camp was yesterday placed under lockdown after an officer, said to be a brigade commander, tested positive for the novel coronavirus, while a soldier reported that his wife has tested positive for the virus, a usually reliable source told the Jamaica Observer last night.

The source said the entire camp was placed under lockdown until all soldiers are tested for the virus.

The JDF’s chief spokesman could not be reached last night and it was not immediately clear how the lockdown is likely to affect the operations of the army, especially since the country in campaign mode for the September 3 General Election.

Up to Tuesday, Jamaica had recorded 1,146 COVID-19 cases, with 770 recoveries and 14 deaths. Of the total number of cases, 403 were imported, mainly from the United States; 378 are contacts of infected persons; 236 related to the workplace cluster in Portmore, St Catherine; 88 are local transmission not epidemiologically linked; while 41 were still under investigation.

Communities in St Thomas and Sandy Bay, Clarendon, recently had their 14-day quarantine extended as the Ministry of Health continued investigations into local contacts in both parishes.

The virus, which has been classified as a pandemic by the World Health Organization, has so far infected more than 22 million people globally and killed approximately 783,000. The United States remains the country most impacted, with more than 5.6 million infections and 175,000 deaths.