Over 40 healthcare workers out sick at St Ann’s Bay Hospital amid COVID wave

Over 40 healthcare workers at the St Ann's Bay Regional Hospital in St Ann are out sick due to COVID-19.

Further, the hospital is also seeing an increase in COVID-19 admissions since December.

“Essentially, we're seeing the effects of the fourth wave. The numbers are increasing exponentially,” Dr Tanya Hamilton-Johnson, senior medical officer at the hospital, told The Gleaner on Monday. 

“We used to have 20 inpatients per day in December, now we're seeing 40, so all our designated isolation wards are full,” Hamilton-Johnson said.

She warned that the situation will worsen if persons continue to flout the prevention protocols as well as fail to get vaccinated.

“Our healthcare workers are overwhelmed, and in terms of it affecting our healthcare workers, we have over 40 healthcare workers out and it is going up daily,” Hamilton-Johnson.

She said the situation is made worse by a rise in victims of motor vehicle crashes.

“While we have the increase in numbers in patients being admitted with COVID-19, we're having an increase in trauma from motor vehicle accidents. So, we're having two sets of increasing numbers,” Hamilton-Johnson lamented. 

- Carl Gilchrist

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