Opposition Spokesman on Health Dr. Morais Guy
.png)
00:00
00:00
00:00
Dr. Morais Guy
Opposition Spokesman on Health Dr. Morais Guy says regular updates should be coming from the Ministry of Health on the COVID-19 subvariants it has been detecting through genome sequencing.
He says it is a dereliction of duty for the Health Ministry not to share the result of tests with the country.
With Jamaica having the capability to test for virus strains, the opposition spokesman argued that the government should ideally be issuing an update "every two weeks or monthly" regarding the variants being detected in the country.
Dr. Guy believes the highly transmissible BA.5 sub-variant of the Omicron strain, which is spreading in various countries, is already in Jamaica.
The strain, he pointed out, is "accounting for about 60 per cent" of COVID-19 cases in the United States, which makes its presence in Jamaica more likely.
However, Dr. Guy said it is fortunate that the BA.5 strain does not seem to cause "as much symptoms as the original strain or the Delta, hence the need for hospitalisation is much reduced".
Still, he reiterated that the country needs to be updated on the current situation so an appropriate plan can be made.
There is also concern about the BA.2.75 subvariant which was first detected in India and has spread to other countries, including the UK, US, Australia, Germany and Canada.
Health Minister Dr. Christopher Tufton has said the ministry is gathering data on the new COVID-19 strains.
.jpg)
All feeds
