Minister of Health and Wellness, Dr Christopher Tufton, says vaccination remains an important response in the fight against the coronavirus (COVID-19).

“The current vaccines are expected to protect against severe illnesses, hospitalisations, and death [that could result from] the Omicron variant. So vaccines still remain an important response,” Dr Tufton said.

The Minister was speaking during a recent COVID Conversations virtual press briefing, where he revealed that a traveller who visited Jamaica tested positive for the new variant, after returning to the United Kingdom.

Dr Tufton expressed concern about Jamaica’s vaccination numbers, which have remained relatively low.

“We have given 1.194 million vaccine doses; 557,000 persons are fully vaccinated, which represents 20.4 per cent of the population, and just under 26 per cent of persons have had at least one dose,” he disclosed.

The Minister also informed that 2,631 booster shots and 612 extended primary series (third dose) have been administered.

Dr Tufton further pointed out that there are “sufficient indicators which confirm that we have to be particularly careful about the possibility of this highly contagious variant of COVID-19 being in the population.”

“Omicron, as we understand it, spreads more easily than the original SARS-COV-2 virus. Anyone with the Omicron infection can spread the virus by an infection rate of some 2.5,” he said.

Meanwhile, National Epidemiologist, Dr Karen Webster-Kerr, said the country’s daily positivity rate, as of December 22, is 6.8 per cent.

She also informed that as of this date, 99 new cases were identified, for a total case count of 92, 226 cases, of which 2,450 persons are reported to have died.

The case fatality rate is at 2.6 per cent.