COVID-19 surveillance
“All cases thought to be COVID-19 must be notified by the medical practitioner (public and private) within 24 hours of suspicion.”
How COVID-19 is watched
COVID-19 was made a Class 1 notifiable disease by Public Health Order in March 2020; Jamaica reported its first case on 10 March 2020. It is watched through the existing surveillance system: Class 1 notification, sentinel surveillance, hospital active surveillance and mortality surveillance.
All hospitals report severe acute respiratory illness (SARI) and admitted lower respiratory tract infection or pneumonia, and all health facilities report influenza-like illness (ILI).
Investigation and contacts
The parish health department and the National Surveillance Unit are notified, and a Class 1 Notification Form follows within 24 hours. The Parish Medical Officer (Health) starts the investigation within 24 hours of notification, with a preliminary report to the National Surveillance Unit within 24 hours.
Contacts from 2 days before to 14 days after the case’s symptom onset are line listed and assessed for risk. Close contacts are quarantined, and quarantine ends on day 11 after the most recent contact.
Testing and deaths
Samples are taken from all suspected cases, symptomatic contacts of confirmed cases, all SARI and admitted pneumonia cases in every hospital, ILI cases under the syndromic protocol, and all suspected COVID-19 deaths. A nasopharyngeal swab, or combined nasopharyngeal and oropharyngeal swabs, goes on ice to the National Public Health Laboratory.
Monthly deaths are reviewed for excess against the five-year mean plus two standard deviations.
Source: National Surveillance Manual