MONTEGO BAY, St James — Health officials in St James plan to distribute 1,400 covers for drums that are potential breeding sites for mosquitoes, their response to a seven-point jump in the parish’s Aedes index.

According to St James’ Deputy Chief Public Health Inspector Nadia Burgess, the parish now has an Aedes index of 17.3 per cent as of the ending of May. In April it was 10.3 per cent.

The Aedes index refers to the percentage of premises or homes in a limited, well-defined space, where actual breeding of the Aedes aegypti mosquito is found and the total number of houses examined in that area.

In presenting the public health department’s report during Thursday’s regular monthly meeting of the St James Municipal Corporation (SJMC), Burgess said the increase can be contributed to heavy rainfall experienced in the parish last month. She noted that water distribution issues are also a factor.

“Majority of the communities attributing to this high index are communities with issues with water distribution meaning that they store water in drums, buckets and barrels outside,” said Burgess.

“We have identified six communities to benefit from this based on the need. These communities are Hurlock, Camrose, Flower Hill, Hendon Norwood, Bogue Hill and Shortwood,” the deputy chief public health inspector told the meeting.

“The communities that have already received drum covers so far are Flower Hill and Hendon Norwood,” she added.

Though faced with a shortage of manpower, Burgess said the St James Public Health Department is committed to serving the parish as best as they can.

“Our team has been vigilant and we are doing our best despite not having enough manpower as the Task Worker Programme has been discontinued at the end of January and has not resumed since,” she said.