The mining town of Linden is now battling with nine cases of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19), six of which were recorded among the recent cases.
This is was disclosed by the Region Ten Regional Health and Emergency Committee (RHEC).
It was discovered that five out of the six persons are from one family, and two of these are children, ages 12 and one.
The patriarch of the family was the third positive case in the town and those now testing positive are his wife, daughter, niece and two close family members.
Three of them have already been transferred to the Diamond Diagnostic Centre, while two remain home for further instructions.
The Committee also revealed that the sixth case is a woman with no ties to the family.
Additionally, two other residents, who are suspected to have contracted the disease, are awaiting results, one of whom is another child.
In light of these developments, Regional Executive Officer Orrin Gordon has emphasised the need for parents to be more vigilant with their children.
“It hurts me to know that we have two children among those infected since before this we had not reported any infections among children. I hope that parents and guardians would recognise that children are not exempt from contracting this deadly virus. Therefore, they must take the required actions and precautions to safeguard children during this time,” he said.
Gordon also called on the wider populace of the town to be more responsible and to take social distancing, enforcement of the curfew and individual and environmental sanitisation more seriously.
“People must understand that COVID-19 is deadly and residents within this region must act responsibly otherwise they continue to put themselves and every other person at risk,” Gordon warned.
“We had registered just one case and remained this way long after other regions had announced theirs. But now within a short space, we have jumped to eight persons,” he added.
Commander of Region 10, Hugh Winter said ranks are already enforcing the emergency measures including the national curfew and will continue to do so in a more robust manner, given the recent rise in cases.
Ranks are on 24-hour patrol ensuring that residents are adhering to the regulations and have had to make several arrests of persons breaching the curfew thus far.
Meanwhile, the Municipality of Linden which has responsibility for ensuring none-essential businesses and the market arena are not occupied by loiterers will also ramp up its monitoring its municipal constables.
The total number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 now stand at 93.