The disclosure was made by Health Minister Dr Christopher Tufton during a virtual press briefing on Monday.

He said positive COVID-19 samples were taken from eight people living in six different parishes who had no travel recent history and sent to the Trinidad and Tobago-based Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA).

Seven of them were found to be the UK strain.

In light of the fact those results were only received on March 6, despite being sent off for testing months ago, Minister Tufton said Government is taking steps to establish its own testing facility for new variants of the virus.

The necessary equipment would cost about J$60 million (US$4.05 million).

Jamaica has recently seen a spike in COVID-19 cases. The island recorded 878 new cases on Sunday – the third consecutive day of record new infections.

On Monday, 561 new COVID cases were recorded taking the total number of infections to 27,465.

There are now 12,178 active cases of COVID in Jamaica and to date, over 460 virus-related deaths have been recorded.

Chief Medical Officer Dr Jacquiline Bisasor-McKenzie said the presence of the UK strain could be responsible for the rapid spread of COVID-19 on the island.

“If we now have two strains in the country, there is the possibility that persons can be re-infected with different strains,” she added.

In addition to the UK variant, two other strains of COVID-19 have been identified by world health authorities – the South Africa variant, originally detected in early October 2020; and the Brazil variant, first identified in travellers from Brazil, who were tested during routine screening at an airport in Japan, in early January.