Jamaica, on Friday, recorded a positivity rate of more than 40 per cent for COVID-19 cases- the highest rate so far since the arrival of the disease on Jamaican shores nearly a year ago. 

Health officials revealed in their update this morning that there were 346 confirmed cases from a total of 861 samples tested. This represents a positivity rate of 40.2 per cent. 

The new cases have pushed the number of positive cases since March last year to 22,817 of which 8,863 are active. 

The surge in new cases continue to place the country's health system under pressure, as patients in hospitals across the island number 228. Twenty are critical and 22 are experiencing moderate symptoms. 

Four more people died yesterday from the infectious disease, which severely affects people with suppressed immune systems, especially the elderly. The deaths increased mortality to 417.

The dead are from St James and the Corporate Area. They are: an 87-year-old woman and a 68 year-old man from Kingston and St. Andrew; and  two men ages 62 and 69 from St. James. 

The Corporate Area accounted for the highest number of new confirmed COVID-19 cases on Friday, with 145. That is more than double the number of cases in St Catherine and St James, which followed Kingston and St Andrew. They both recorded 56 and 54 new cases each. 

Manchester recorded 26, Clarendon 18 and Westmoreland 13 new cases. All other parishes recorded single digit new cases. Hanover accounted for seven new cases, Portland six, Trelawny five and St Ann, St Elizabeth, St Mary and St Mary four each. 

A total of 87 people recovered from the disease, bringing the number of recoveries to date to 13,318. 

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