No major jitters despite new COVID strain
Published:Saturday | April 23, 2022 | 12:05 AMOlivia Brown and Tamara Bailey/Gleaner Writers
Health officials across the Southern Regional Health Authority (SRHA) are sharing the optimism of Health and Wellness Minister Dr Christopher Tufton and Dr Brian James, president of the Medical Association of Jamaica (MAJ), that the island is in a good position to tackle any surge in infections arising from the discovery of the latest COVID-19 variant in the island.
On Thursday, the Ministry of Health & Wellness announced that 89 samples collected between January 1 to March 4 were submitted for genome sequencing. The results showed 98.9 per cent were Omicron variants and 1.1 per cent the Delta variant.
Of the Omicron samples, two of 88 – or 2.3 per cent – were BA.2 variant and 97.7 per cent the BA.1 variant.
In an interview on Thursday, Bryan told The Gleaner that he was not surprised that the Omicron BA.2 variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus which causes COVID-19 was in Jamaica.
“This is something we expected because it is now becoming the dominant sub-variant around the world, so there’s no real reason why Jamaica would be left out. But what we’re hoping is that it doesn’t cause us the stress that the [original] Omicron [variant] did, and cause the large number of admissions,” the MAJ president said.
James urged Jamaicans to remain vigilant despite the discontinuation of COVID-19 orders.
“What we have been saying, from the MAJ’s standpoint, is that if we are going to take away these mandates, we should remain vigilant, be flexible, and be able to adjust to whatever the local situation is,” said James.
He said the new variant could see a surge in the country’s positivity rate and hospitalisations.
“The fact is when the Omicron became the dominant one (variant) in Jamaica, we ended up with a large number of persons admitted to hospital, we ended up with 577 patients by the middle of January and, therefore, there is nothing to suggest that we’re immune from having a surge on the hospitals. We just have to be vigilant and be ready to respond,” he said.
Pointing to the continued vaccination drive as well as the 40-bed field hospital at the May Pen Hospital, Clarendon’s medical officer of health, Kimberly Scarlett-Campbell, said her team is prepared for any eventuality.
“There is nothing that we could experience with the Omicron that we have not been through before, so because of that, I just believe there’s nothing we cannot overcome. We have been through more, and that new variant is milder than the previous one. ... We’ve already been through the worst. I just believe it’s something we should be able to manage,” said Scarlett-Campbell.
She noted that the field hospital, which was recently closed as the number of COVID-19 hospitalisations decreased significantly, can be reactivated if needed.
The health team in St Elizabeth is also prepared, according to parish manager for the St Elizabeth Health Services, Sean Brissett.
ADEQUATE BED SPACES
He pointed out that there are adequate bed spaces in the parish.
“We are prepared. We’ve been dealing with COVID-19 for the past two years, and we have our team in place and we have always been functioning,” Brissett told The Gleaner, although he added that plans are in place to transform other areas into COVID wards should the current designated spaces become overwhelmed.
Michael Bent, regional director of the SRHA, said the Manchester health team is monitoring the situation.
“We have always been on the alert for any possibilities. We would have started reusing some of the original COVID wards and we have reserved some other beds. We just have to monitor it really, but we are still on the alert,” Bent told The Gleaner.
Minister Tufton said that he is confident that the public health system can withstand any upsurge in positive cases that lead to hospitalisation.
“I certainly believe that we can manage clinically if there were another upsurge. There are a lot of adjustments to how we are measuring the risks ... ,” he told The Gleaner. “If it were to get worse, we believe we could cope ... . The experience of the last three surges makes us a lot more capable to deal with any future surge.”
Tufton, who was participating at a forum on risk communication at the Northern Caribbean University in Mandeville, Manchester, on Thursday, said that at the time there were approximately 15 COVID-positive patients hopsitalised and roughly 750 bed spaces across the island, complemented by stronger natural or aided immunity among the population.
The health minister said that there continues to be improvement in the system, but acknowledged the dangers of complacency, with the full impact of new strains still unknown.
He again called for more Jamaicans to take COVID shots, adding that the current vaccination take-up of 24 to 25 per cent of the population was far from sufficient.
“The messaging around vaccines has to continue. It has been a real challenge; we have vaccines, but people are not taking it,” he said.