Jamaica hit a new record for daily coronavirus infections with 1,968 cases recorded over 24 hours up to Saturday afternoon.
However, despite the record number of cases, Jamaica’s COVID-positivity rate fell to its lowest in days, at 31.7 per cent for the one-day period, with over 7,000 tests being done.
According to the Ministry of Health and Wellnesn, eight COVID-19 deaths occurred from September 1, 2021 to January 13, and were recorded on Saturday, bringing the overall coronavirus death toll in Jamaica to 2,530.
A one-year-old baby girl from Manchester and an 89-year-old male from St Ann are among the latest recorded COVID fatalities.
The separate deaths of two COVID-19 patients are under investigation by health authorities.
There were 95 recoveries on the day, bringing that tally to 67,142.
The newly confirmed COVID-19 cases brought the total number on record for the island to 112,218.
Notably, the 31.7 per cent positivity rate was based on the samples that were tested on Saturday.
Of the newly confirmed cases, 1,135 are females and 833 are males, with ages ranging from nine days to 95 years.
The case count was made up of St James (534), St Catherine (386), St Ann (293), Kingston and St Andrew (271), St Elizabeth (78), Trelawny (76), Hanover (76), Westmoreland (74), St Thomas (64), Clarendon (41), Manchester (39), Portland (20), and St Mary (16).
There are 87 moderately ill patients, 41 severely ill patients and seven critically ill patients among 13,696 active cases now under observation in Jamaica.
A total of 446 COVID-19 patients are now hospitalised locally.
