(Jamaica Star) Health authorities are currently tracking some 1,000 Portland residents who they believe were in contact – directly or indirectly – with persons who have tested positive for COVID-19.
Lorenzo Hume, chief public health officer for Portland, made the disclosure during the monthly sitting of the Portland Municipal Corporation last Thursday.
Five Portlanders have tested positive for the new coronavirus, one of whom reportedly displayed no symptom of the disease.
“We have gone now, in terms of a community visit interface or got information through different avenues, of more than 1,000 people that we would have tried to get information on them and sift through that to see who are the persons of interest,” Hume said.
His statement comes against the background of a worrying trend among the people of the parish capital, Port Antonio, who have been spotted in large groupings along several corridors of the resort town.
“We are extremely worried because among our group, we have an asymptomatic carrier, among our positive cases, and in that respect, if that person had infected other persons, (and) they are also asymptomatic, then we are in for problems and that is a concern,” Hume said.