Tufton urges vigilance as COVID cases trend downwards

Minister of Health and Wellness Dr Christopher Tufton says coronavirus (COVID-19) trends are moving in the right direction, but continues to implore Jamaicans to maintain the health and safety measures.

“We have to continue to be cautious. Hospitalisations are going down, the positivity rate is going down, the [virus] reproductive rate is below one – all suggesting that we [are] moving in the right direction,” Tufton said while addressing a press briefing recently.

National epidemiologist Dr Karen Webster Kerr said that an analysis indicates that the increase in curfew hours helped to reduce the reproductive rate of the virus.

The reproductive rate is a measure of a virus’ transmission, or the number of new infections generated by each case.

A rate above one (+1) illustrates an increase in cases, one (1) means that the disease is alive but stable, and below one (-1) illustrates a decrease in cases.

Webster Kerr said that the longer curfew hours had a better effect on the reproductive rates of COVID-19.

“When we look on the change over time, we have shown a decrease, generally, over the last few weeks and you see a dramatic decrease [last] week,” she said.

“This decrease, when we look at the seven-day average, it’s about 11 per cent,” she added.

“We are improving, not where we need to be yet, but it is definitely improving,” she noted.