COVID-19 Outlook
  • Global
  • By US State
    • A-F
      • Coronavirus Alabama
      • Coronavirus Alaska
      • Coronavirus Arizona
      • Coronavirus Arkansas
      • Coronavirus California
      • Coronavirus Colorado
      • Coronavirus Connecticut
      • Coronavirus Delaware
      • Coronavirus Dist. of Columbia
      • Coronavirus Florida
    • G-L
      • Coronavirus Georgia
      • Coronavirus Guam
      • Coronavirus Hawaii
      • Coronavirus Idaho
      • Coronavirus Illinois
      • Coronavirus Indiana
      • Coronavirus Iowa
      • Coronavirus Kansas
      • Coronavirus Kentucky
      • Coronavirus Louisiana
    • M-R
      • Coronavirus Maryland
      • Coronavirus Maine
      • Coronavirus Massachusetts
      • Coronavirus Michigan
      • Coronavirus Minnesota
      • Coronavirus Mississippi
      • Coronavirus Missouri
      • Coronavirus Montana
      • Coronavirus Nebraska
      • Coronavirus Nevada
      • Coronavirus New Hampshire
      • Coronavirus New Jersey
      • Coronavirus New Mexico
      • Coronavirus New York
      • Coronavirus North Carolina
      • Coronavirus North Dakota
      • Coronavirus Ohio
      • Coronavirus Oklahoma
      • Coronavirus Oregon
      • Coronavirus Pennsylvania
      • Coronavirus Puerto Rico
      • Coronavirus Rhode Island
    • S-Z
      • Coronavirus South Carolina
      • Coronavirus South Dakota
      • Coronavirus Tennessee
      • Coronavirus Texas
      • Coronavirus Utah
      • Coronavirus Vermont
      • Coronavirus Virgin Islands and the Caribbean
      • Coronavirus Virginia
      • Coronavirus Washington
      • Coronavirus West Virginia
      • Coronavirus Wisconsin
      • Coronavirus Wyoming
  • Symptoms
    • Quarantine
  • Celebrities
  • News
    • Coronavirus Strange and Conspiracy
    • Supplies and Shortages
    • White House Updates
    • Travel and Tourism
  • Shopping Online
    • Poshmark
    • Ebay
    • Mercari Coming Soon
    • AliExpress Coming Soon
    • Amazon Coming Soon
  • Pets
COVID-19 Outlook
  • Global
  • By US State
    • A-F
      • Coronavirus Alabama
      • Coronavirus Alaska
      • Coronavirus Arizona
      • Coronavirus Arkansas
      • Coronavirus California
      • Coronavirus Colorado
      • Coronavirus Connecticut
      • Coronavirus Delaware
      • Coronavirus Dist. of Columbia
      • Coronavirus Florida
    • G-L
      • Coronavirus Georgia
      • Coronavirus Guam
      • Coronavirus Hawaii
      • Coronavirus Idaho
      • Coronavirus Illinois
      • Coronavirus Indiana
      • Coronavirus Iowa
      • Coronavirus Kansas
      • Coronavirus Kentucky
      • Coronavirus Louisiana
    • M-R
      • Coronavirus Maryland
      • Coronavirus Maine
      • Coronavirus Massachusetts
      • Coronavirus Michigan
      • Coronavirus Minnesota
      • Coronavirus Mississippi
      • Coronavirus Missouri
      • Coronavirus Montana
      • Coronavirus Nebraska
      • Coronavirus Nevada
      • Coronavirus New Hampshire
      • Coronavirus New Jersey
      • Coronavirus New Mexico
      • Coronavirus New York
      • Coronavirus North Carolina
      • Coronavirus North Dakota
      • Coronavirus Ohio
      • Coronavirus Oklahoma
      • Coronavirus Oregon
      • Coronavirus Pennsylvania
      • Coronavirus Puerto Rico
      • Coronavirus Rhode Island
    • S-Z
      • Coronavirus South Carolina
      • Coronavirus South Dakota
      • Coronavirus Tennessee
      • Coronavirus Texas
      • Coronavirus Utah
      • Coronavirus Vermont
      • Coronavirus Virgin Islands and the Caribbean
      • Coronavirus Virginia
      • Coronavirus Washington
      • Coronavirus West Virginia
      • Coronavirus Wisconsin
      • Coronavirus Wyoming
  • Symptoms
    • Quarantine
  • Celebrities
  • News
    • Coronavirus Strange and Conspiracy
    • Supplies and Shortages
    • White House Updates
    • Travel and Tourism
  • Shopping Online
    • Poshmark
    • Ebay
    • Mercari Coming Soon
    • AliExpress Coming Soon
    • Amazon Coming Soon
  • Pets
  • Coronavirus Virgin Islands and the Caribbean

Ministry seeks $350-m deal to treat people with chronic health problems privately

  • December 31, 1969
  • Publisher
Total
0
Shares
0
0
0

THE Government is seeking to forge an estimated $350-million public-private partnership agreement with private health providers to treat some 75,000 Jamaicans battling chronic health diseases.

This would ease the burden on public health facilities and hospitals should the country begin to experience community spread of COVID-19.

Health Minister Dr Christopher Tufton, making the disclosure yesterday during a virtual press briefing, said the arrangement was in answer to the question of how the health sector would fare under the added numbers.

“The very short but important history of the virus tells us those who die tend to be the older population and those who have underlying conditions — cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and hypertension — and as a consequence we are very mindful of community spread among that vulnerable population.

“We have taken a decision that in the following weeks we are going to engage private sector interests under a public-private partnership arrangement to outsource some of the services that are being carried out in public health facilities and hospitals,” Dr Tufton said.

“We are going to take out the two highly vulnerable groups of persons who have chronic hypertension and diabetes; this numbers about 75,000 persons across the country. The idea is to outsource the sessional visits by this population to private practitioners who would see them once or twice per month for four months in the first instance,” the health minister outlined.

Noting that the move was “something we have been thinking about for some time because we understand the crowding effect on our health centres across the island”, Dr Tufton said the decision was taken to fast-track the arrangement due to concerns about community transmission.

Yesterday, Chief Medical Officer (CMO) Dr Jacquiline Bisasor McKenzie said Jamaica is not yet at the stage of community transmission of the virus.

“So what we see are clusters of cases, meaning we have cases that have arisen out of linkages to the first cases. The World Health Organisation has identified three stages, the first stage is no cases, and then sporadic cases and then clusters of cases. Cluster is where we can see definite linkages to the imported cases and we are seeing more than one or two of these relationships. Right now we would have about four such clusters; the largest would be from our first case and it is not a large cluster,” she said, noting that there are about five cases related to the first case.

She, however, noted that “the fact that we have these confirmed cases across the island suggests that there may be other cases that may have come into the country that we may not be aware of”.

Said the CMO: “The next level is where we have community transmission, where they come up in places that we are unable to identify a link to an imported case. Many may have come in undetected by the surveillance systems; they may have been in communities and had contact with other persons who may have travelled to other areas and so, at the point of them presenting to a health-care facility with symptoms suggestive of COVID-19 and maybe testing positive, there is no definite link we can trace.”

“Once we start seeing that, even if it is one or two cases it increases the risk of more transmissions across the country and it is more than likely we will be seeing an increase,” she warned.

And Dr Bisasor McKenzie said with regard to general surveillance, to determine whether there is community transmission the health ministry has been conducting tests on all severe acute respiratory cases admitted to hospitals; health-care workers with influenza-like illnesses, a number of persons who present to hospitals with influenza-like symptoms even if they might not have had contact with confirmed or suspected COVID-19 infected persons. She said this will provide a network of samples representing all parishes, which would allow them to detect whether there is community transmission.

She further assured the country that there are sufficient materials to conduct tests at this time.

“We have received materials to do about 3,000 tests from the Pan American Health Organisation…in the event of a spike, our testing methodology will change and the reagents we currently have will double the number of tests we are able to do. In either case we have two months’ supply of testing material. We have requested from PAHO additional kits that we will receive within that time,” Dr Bisasor McKenzie informed.

In the meantime, she said the health ministry was exploring the idea of the use of rapid test kits and should, within the next three days, decide on the type of kits appropriate.

Meanwhile, health officials have already tested 160 samples, with 26 persons testing positive, 124 testing negative and 18 results pending. Seventeen persons are now under quarantine in government facilities, 142 under quarantine at home, and 254 have been released from quarantine arrangements. This number does not include those in the Bull Bay and Seven Miles areas who will on Saturday, March 28 be released from their quarantine.

Now you can read the Jamaica Observer ePaper anytime, anywhere. The Jamaica Observer ePaper is available to you at home or at work, and is the same edition as the printed copy available at http://bit.ly/epaperlive




Source link

Total
0
Shares
Share 0
Tweet 0
Pin it 0
Related Topics
  • 350m
  • Chronic
  • deal
  • Dominican Republic coronavirus
  • Health
  • Ministry
  • people
  • privately
  • problems
  • seeks
  • treat
Next Article
  • Coronavirus Virgin Islands and the Caribbean

Elephant Man charged for immigration violation | News

  • March 23, 2020
  • Publisher
View Post
You May Also Like
View Post

Full Text | Why the DPP ruled out criminal charges in Jodian Fearon’s death | News

  • October 7, 2020
View Post

Four ministers sworn in | News

  • September 7, 2020
View Post

Western hospitals willing to accept spillover COVID-19 cases | News

  • August 27, 2020
View Post

Montego Bay Fire Station 70 per cent complete | News

  • August 8, 2020
View Post

Sixteen new COVID cases, 14 more recoveries | News

  • July 19, 2020
View Post

Jamaicans happy to be home, after being stranded abroad | News

  • May 30, 2020
View Post

Criminal Records Office to resume operation on Monday | News

  • May 30, 2020
View Post

Canada to provide small business, property owners with relief loans | News

  • May 29, 2020

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

Recent Posts
  • Biden to sign 10 executive orders, invoke Defense Production Act to fight Covid
    • January 21, 2021
  • Coronavirus updates: Vaccine shortages complicate US response; Joe Biden targets COVID-19 relief on first day as president
    • January 21, 2021
  • Team Trump Left Biden a COVID-19 Nightmare
    • January 21, 2021
Sponsored
  • Digital Agency
  • Xpurity
  • Tech Music and Gaming News
  • Industrial News and Resources
  • Headline & Celebrity News
  • Celebrity News & Gossip
  • Adult social media
  • Chicago escorts
  • Breaking News
  • Real Clear Politics
  • Travel News
  • Trending Celebrities
  • Adult SEO
  • Fashion and Celebrity Style
  • Music and Entertainement News
  • California Escorts
  • Chicago escorts
  • Best Chicago Escorts
Categories
Featured Posts
  • Biden to sign 10 executive orders, invoke Defense Production Act to fight Covid

    • January 21, 2021
    View Post
  • Coronavirus updates: Vaccine shortages complicate US response; Joe Biden targets COVID-19 relief on first day as president

    • January 21, 2021
    View Post
  • Team Trump Left Biden a COVID-19 Nightmare

    • January 21, 2021
    View Post
  • Thousands of Vaccine Appointments Canceled as Supply Lags

    • January 20, 2021
    View Post
  • Stock market performance by president, from Reagan to Trump

    • January 20, 2021
    View Post

Subscribe

Subscribe now to our newsletter

Covid-19 Outlook
  • Contact
  • Advertising
Your trusted Coronavirus Covid-19 source.

Input your search keywords and press Enter.