(CMR) At least one major Jamaica hospital has reported a lack of bed spaces for COVID-19 patients as the cases in the island are again spiking.
On Monday, the University Hospital of the West Indies (UHWI) advised that it was out of space for COVID patients and had to be transferring patients to other facilities.
Dr. Andrew Manning, President of the Medical Association of Jamaica (MAJ), told Power 106 that additional bed spaces would be needed.
“We in our country now have a very limited capacity to admit COVID-19 patients. We have about 600 beds available now, and if you just do the math, looking at the recent levels of hospitals, if we don't check the surge, we're going to run out of beds,” Dr. Manning cautioned.
“And we're not even talking about all the other persons who need hospitalization because you still have persons coming in with cardiovascular disease; we're still, unfortunately, seeing our trauma patients and other medical conditions, so we do need to do something.”
Many are blaming the surge in COVID-19 cases on the relaxation of protocols last month with the entertainment industry reopened and people granted access to beaches and rivers.
Prime Minister Andrew Holness has since reimposed some restrictions, including earlier curfews.
Associate Professor of Public Health Alverston Bailey has called for the government to reimpose strict restrictions including lockdowns to prevent a further spread of the virus, Radio Jamaica reported.
Bailey said Jamaica had likely entered the third wave of the virus, which might be caused by the Delta variant.
Up to Monday, Jamaica recorded 53,543 cases of the coronavirus, with over 1200 deaths recorded since the start of the pandemic.
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