MOUNT SALEM, St James — The clinical coordinator for the Western Regional Health Authority (WRHA), Dr Delroy Fray, has disclosed that while the region has not seen a surge in hospitalisation from what appears to be an Omicron-induced fourth wave of the novel coronavirus, several health-care workers have tested positive.

“That is where the impact is on us. We are seeing where more staff are going off on quarantine because of it,” he told the Jamaica Observer.

Figures for Cornwall Regional Hospital (CRH) in St James alone have shown that on Tuesday, the institution recorded 36 staff in quarantine. This included eight nurses, eight doctors and 20 other workers such as laboratory and auxiliary workers.

CRH has been the worst hit, so far, among public hospitals in the west. According to Dr Fray, at the Falmouth Public General Hospital in Trelawny, Noel Holmes Hospital in Hanover and Savanna-la-Mar Public General Hospital in Westmoreland, the number of COVID-19 cases among staff is insignificant.

Meanwhile, the region has seen fewer people being hospitalised, compared to the havoc wreaked during the third wave between August and October of last year. Dr Fray described hospitalisation levels this time around as ‘marginal’.

As of Wednesday, CRH had 10 confirmed cases of COVID-19 with results pending for 12 suspected cases. Up to Tuesday, the hospital in Savanna-la-Mar had eight cases and another 14 awaiting results. Noel Holmes had one patient and Falmouth had eight.

“Although there is an increase in infectivity rate, we are not seeing a lot of admissions [and] that is commensurate with that which is keeping with how the Omicron strain behaves. It doesn’t really cause respiratory illness. It gives you flu-like illness and most people will get better in three days. We are probably not going to see a lot of admissions where this is concerned,” stated Dr Fray, who noted that the region is prepared for the eventuality of a surge.

As it relates to children, reports coming out of the United States of America on Monday had indicated that there was a worrying trend where more and more children are being hospitalised with serious respiratory illnesses.

Dr Fray noted that while CRH is not seeing an increase in COVID-19 cases among children, some private doctors have reported treating more children with flu-like symptoms.

“We still must be very aggressive with our protocols. We still encourage people to go and get vaccinated and those who require a booster, go and take it because this is the way that we can minimise the spread of the thing,” said the senior health-care worker.

Ministry of Health data for Wednesday showed that the country had 1,128 new COVID-19 cases and three additional deaths. This brings the total number of people infected since March of 2020 to 98,194 and total deaths to 2,486. A total of 66,236 people have recovered from COVID-19 and there have been 4,863 active cases over the last two week.