With an alarming increase of COVID-19 positive cases recorded in St Ann for January, medical officer of health in the parish Dr Tamara Henry is urging residents who have been ignoring the protocols to ensure they are washing their hands and wearing masks.

Henry made her plea during the monthly sitting of the St Ann Municipal Corporation meeting last Thursday.

“We continue to advise persons to ensure that they are wearing their masks, maintaining distance and physically washing their hands and sanitising properly. We also have challenges as persons continue to wear their masks inappropriately, so I’m urging people in their communities to remind their neighbours about the importance of wearing their masks properly,” said Henry.

In January, St Ann recorded 1,554 COVID-19 positive cases, the most the parish has recorded for any one month.

“When we look at January in comparison to December we saw [an] over 170 per cent increase,” added Henry, who charged that a major contributor to the spike was public passenger vehicles.

“We also want to encourage taxi men to reduce the number of passengers in their vehicles. Persons also continue to go to work when they are unwell, and persons in their workspaces start to feel ill and it runs the possibility of having facilities completely closed because there are no workers to continue operations,” said Henry

The majority of the cases in St Ann are in the 25-44 age group, with the St Ann’s Bay health district contributing the most to positive cases.

“The St Ann’s Bay health district has recorded 3,009 cases while Alexandria health district is the least affected with 663 positive COVID cases,” said Henry

In St Ann, 7,934 COVID-19 cases have been confirmed since the first case was recorded in 2020, with 4,545 being females and 3,389 males.

The parish is, however, off to better start for February.

“We are at 31 cases [up to Thursday, February 10] and we really do hope this downward trend will continue because we don’t want the numbers to go up again,” Henry stated.