Staff Reporter
With the official start of the Atlantic Hurricane Season mere weeks away, Dr. Francine Phillips Kelly, Medical Officer of Health for the parish of St. James, is warning residents not to be blinded by data swirling about COVID-19, while ignoring what could be a threat or a possible surge of Dengue Fever if people become lax in their prevention methods.
She says with the health sector already challenged by COVID-19, all efforts must be made to prevent another outbreak of dengue fever, which could thrust the sector into a crisis.
She says the citizenry must be cognizant that the vector which transmits dengue fever, the Aedes Aegypti mosquito, lives in Jamaica and efforts must be sustained to destroy mosquito breeding sites as without the mosquito there is no threat of the transmission of the disease.
WESTERN BUREAU:
ST JAMES’ health authorities have revealed that the parish’s average positive infection rate for COVID-19 stands at 15 per cent, which is higher than the national positive average of nine per cent and among the highest rates in western Jamaica.
Dr Francine Phillips-Kelly, the medical officer for St James, provided the statistics on Wednesday during a special meeting of the St James Municipal Corporation, which was attended by Health Minister Dr Christopher Tufton. The meeting formed part of Tufton’s visit to the region in the wake of western Jamaica becoming a hotbed for the spread of the pandemic.