99% of 3rd wave COVID-19 patients in Western Ja not vaccinated
MOUNT SALEM, St James — A whopping 99 per cent of COVID-19 patients admitted to the four public hospitals in western Jamaica in the last three weeks were not vaccinated, according to Dr Delroy Fray, clinical coordinator for the Western Regional Health Authority (WRHA).
“Of all the patients… hospitalised [with COVID], 99 per cent of them were not vaccinated. So all the COVID deaths are predominantly unvaccinated so far,” he told the Jamaica Observer yesterday.
This covers patients at Cornwall Regional Hospital in St James, Noel Holmes Hospital in Hanover, Falmouth Hospital in Trelawny, and Savanna-la-Mar Public General Hospital in Westmoreland. These hospitals are under the remit of the WRHA.
As with other medical facilities across the country, the locations in the west are well over capacity, and the numbers keep climbing. On Sunday, Cornwall Regional had 93 positive cases, with 27 awaiting results. In Westmoreland, it was a similar situation with Savanna-la-Mar hospital having 56 confirmed cases and 36 awaiting results.
With the current strain on the health facilities, Dr Fray has once again encouraged everyone to get vaccinated.
“The science is very clear. Everybody who gets the opportunity to be vaccinated must take it and you must make an effort to go and do it,” he urged. “The risk of vaccination is minimal compared to the adverse effects of COVID. And even when you are vaccinated, we still ask that you maintain the protocols that we have been preaching from last March up until now. That is the way that we are going to rise above this infection and get back to some normality in this country,” he said.
The overwhelming number of patients admitted are unable to breathe properly on their own, and this has placed a strain on the hospitals’ supply of medical oxygen, a problem replicated in other facilities across the country. The WRHA-managed locations were among those that had their supplies of the precious commodity replenished yesterday.
According to Dr Fray, Cornwall Regional received 94 cylinders of oxygen while its bulk source that is being distributed through pipes on the wards was on its way from Kingston. Hospitals in Falmouth and Savanna-la-Mar also had their supplies replenished, he said.
The health official commended the Montego Bay Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Jamaica Defence Force, which have been assisting in transporting the cylinders of bulk oxygen which is distributed by the country’s sole supplier of medical grade oxygen, IGL.
On Sunday, Hanover recorded a total of 30 new cases, St James 63, Trelawny 28, and Westmoreland 65.
That takes Hanover’s total cases, since March 2020, to 2,204. St James has a total of 6,663, Trelawny, 2,364 and Westmoreland 4,089. Up to Sunday the country had recorded 67,402 confirmed cases since the outbreak of the virus last year March. Of that number 17,288 are active.