WESTMORELAND, Jamaica — COVID-19 cases are increasing at an alarming rate in Westmoreland, according to the parish’s medical officer for health Dr Marcia Graham.

“We are now up to 110 active cases in this parish. A month ago I was talking about significantly less. We were down to 10 to 20 cases. Just in the last few days, between Monday and Wednesday, we got 96 new cases,” she said.

Dr Graham was speaking at the regular monthly council meeting of the Westmoreland Municipal Corporation.

“Our positivity rate has gone up. We had peaked in January at 68.8 per cent and it had come down towards the end of March to 1.1 per cent. We are now back at 30.6 per cent and climbing,” she warned.

Dr Graham, who pointed out that Westmorland’s current positivity rate is higher than the nation’s 10 per cent average, stressed that, while some safety measures are no longer mandatory, there is a need for vigilance.

“I have noticed a relaxation in the wearing of masks that cover mouths and noses. It’s not mandatory, but it’s recommended, especially when you are indoors in an enclosed space. The hand sanitising needs to continue,” she urged.

“COVID a keep in Westmoreland and so I need to encourage us to do our best to maintain our prevention methods. They helped us overcome four surges and they will help us prevent a fifth one if we just follow the protocols and protect ourselves and those around us who might be even more vulnerable than we are,” she pleaded.

Dr Graham told the meeting there has also been an increase in the number of children being infected, and made an appeal for residents to be more careful around youngsters.

She also appealed to individuals who use self-test kits to inform the health department of positive results.

“We need to offer you the PCR [polymerase chain reaction] test and we also need to do the contact tracing,” she explained.