LUCEA, Hanover — Hanover’s Medical Officer of Health Dr Kaushal Singh has disclosed that the parish has the enviable record of having the highest number of senior citizens over the age of 60 who have received COVID-19 vaccinations islandwide.

“I can tell you, Mr chairman, among the elderly population, we vaccinated approximately 41.3 per cent or 6.5 per cent got at least one shot…We got the highest in the country for vaccinating the elderly population,” Dr Singh told the monthly general meeting of the Hanover Municipal Corporation on Thursday.

The chief medical officer noted in his written report that January was challenging for the health department as a result of a sharp increase in new novel coronavirus cases.

According to the report, which was later seen by the Jamaica Observer, 460 new cases were recorded in January, a 17 per cent increase over the previous month. At the end of the month, 145 cases were active and in isolation.

Of the 3,927 year-to-date confirmed cases, 3,601 or 91 per cent have recovered. This has placed Hanover in the position of having one of the highest recovery rates in the western region .

Dr Singh argued that this might be due to the fact that Hanover had the highest vaccination coverage in the over 60 age group in the country.

Year-to-date, 184 Hanoverians have succumbed to the virus.

Dr Singh, in his report, suggested that those deaths could have possibly been prevented if the vaccination coverage was higher.

To date, the parish has an estimated population of 75,519 residents of which at least 20 per cent have taken the full dose of the vaccine and at least 25.9 per cent one dose.

The medical officer noted that while the positivity rate in the parish is decreasing, one should not get complacent. As such, the health department is continuing with its outreach programme by increasing the number of fixed vaccination sites to 10.

Despite the pressure placed on the department as a result of the pandemic, which resulted in limited staff, the department was able to ensure that other services were maintained.

This has resulted in the parish achieving the highest control rate of non-communicable diseases among western parishes — 58.3 per cent for hypertension and 41.3 per cent for diabetes cases.

Dr Singh said this could be attributed to the expansion and continuation of curative clinics at remote health centres which has resulted in increased accessibility.