Surveillance key as ‘epidemic wave’ hits Jamaica – PAHO
Published:Monday | October 12, 2020 | 12:12 AMJovan Johnson/Senior Staff Reporter
Jamaica is experiencing an “epidemic wave” in coronavirus cases, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) has confirmed, while warning the region to prepare for a “rapid resurgence” of the virus that’s killed more than one million people globally.
In an epidemiological alert issued Friday, PAHO said governments should prepare health services “to face recurrent waves and outbreaks occurring in different locations within the same country, simultaneously or at different points in time, as the economy progressively reopens”.
PAHO’s Dr Eldonna Boisson told The Gleaner in a September 29 interview that COVID-19 surveillance was one of the critical areas of regional response that needed bolstering, an issue that now takes on greater urgency.
“There has been strengthening taking place. But I think even more so as we move towards the introduction of a vaccine, it’s going to be important to have very good surveillance,” said the organisation’s adviser on diseases surveillance and epidemiology.
Boosting surveillance capacities to identify and respond to the virus’ spread, the expert argued, will also be crucial for the “balancing act” needed to support economic growth without threatening public health.
The Caribbean is heavily dependent on tourism, but lockdown measures globally have severely affected growth. S&P Global Rating is expecting tourism in the region to decline by 60 to 70 per cent from April to December.
That is a punishing prospect for economies where tourism is a main earner and key employer and is, therefore, why authorities are keen on reopening quickly.
Jamaica and the Dominican Republic might lose between five and 11 per cent of GDP, according to a July report from the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development that looked at COVID-19’s impact on tourism.
“They must relax restrictions in order to build the economy; without the economy, they don’t have health,” said Boisson. “But, then, if health is overwhelmed, then you don’t have people to work the economies, so the two are very intricately related.”
She continued: “Surveillance will have to be very good so they know what is happening and compare the cases they have to the capacity they have to treat with cases.”
In the alert, PAHO noted that the Americas accounted for 49 per cent of the total COVID-19 cases and 55 per cent of the total deaths reported globally, based on figures up to October 5.
Jamaica, it said, since the end of August to date, has been experiencing an “epidemic wave”, based on the increases in cases, which outstrip the number between March, when the first case was confirmed, and July 31.
Jamaica confirmed community spread on September 4, an announcement from Health Minister Christopher Tufton that came a day after a general election and two days after the determination was made.
On August 31, Jamaica had 2,459 confirmed cases with 21 deaths.
Those figures have jumped to 7,718 cases and 139 deaths up to October 10. Some 3,162 people have recovered.
Health ministry data also suggest possibly the highest one-day positivity return as 31 per cent of the samples from a batch of 634 were confirmed with the virus.
An average of 642 samples have been tested per day since September 1, with the largest number of 1,202 recorded on that same day. Since October, the daily average has dropped to 580.
“In Jamaica, unlike other countries that have experienced a resurgence in cases, a change in the age distribution of cases has not been observed; persons under 40 years of age accounted for 68 per cent of all cases during the period prior to the epidemic wave and 57 per cent of the cases during the current epidemic wave,” PAHO said.
Speaking in the House of Representatives on September 29, the health minister said that in light of the rising cases, Jamaica will have to “recalibrate and rebalance our approach to the management of the pandemic”.
An increased focus on community engagement through civic groups like clubs and churches, he said, will be key to the way forward because “targeted lockdowns are no longer useful”.
The Opposition People’s National Party has been critical of aspects of the Government’s handling of the pandemic response.
“What measures are to be put in place to mitigate the spread and number of deaths? ... We have seen the hospitalisation numbers increasing, and we have seen that there’s a swing between those who are moderately ill and those who are critically ill …. It suggests that we are not on top of what we would like to have,” argued Dr Morais Guy, the spokesman on health.
The number of hospitalisations up to October 10 was 138. Twenty-seven people are moderately ill and 17 critical.
Though not speaking directly to the Jamaican situation, PAHO’s Caribbean subregional programme coordinator, Jessie Schutt-Aine, said that the region’s response so far has been “commendable”.
“I think with the amount of testing that’s happening, the Caribbean countries have a good sense of surveillance and where we are in terms of the number of cases,” she told The Gleaner.
“There are some countries where the numbers have gone up, but I think that the countries are responding accordingly. They’re going back into lockdown and closing the borders to try to make sure that the situation remains manageable.”