Nothing was spared as the CMO highlighted, among other things, the “overworked and stressed” healthcare workers the low vaccine take-up the bed shortage crippling hospitals now affecting non-COVID patients and Jamaica’s young people, aged 18-39, among whom infections are soaring. The path for the drastic measures was paved by Chief Medical Officer Dr Jacquiline Bisasor McKenzie, who painted a grim picture of the island’s COVID situation, which, she argued, warranted the “serious” measures. But I urge all of them to get vaccinated,” Fulton said. “We do have farming exercises that have to be attended to from early morning such as those who are in dairy and those who have pultry operation, livestock. “We are urging all our citizens to make the sacrifice and comply,” he said, a point echoed by Lenworth Fulton, the president of the JAS, which represents more than 220,000 farmers. PSOJ President Keith Duncan said the tightened restrictions would be “disruptive” but “we are hopeful that these measures will have the desired impact to bring down the cases. There seems to be limited compliance with the measures, and the hospitals are filled beyond capacity.” “We have to slow down the spread of the virus. “Something drastic was required because we are in the midst of a third wave,” said Dr Andrew Manning, who heads the MAJ. The Medical Association of Jamaica (MAJ), the Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica (PSOJ), and the Jamaica Agricultural Society (JAS), representing key industries and hundreds of thousands of workers, endorsed the restrictions even as they stand to lose millions. Sign up for The Gleaner’s morning and evening newsletters. That many persons live day to day, many persons have no savings, and you can’t disrupt plans without giving at least some notice,” said Holness, noting that the measures should not be a surprise. “The Government has been taking a very gradual approach knowing the society that we have.
The significance was amplified given that the announcement by Prime Minister Andrew Holness on Thursday came just a day after the highly contagious variant, Delta, was confirmed on the island.īut for essential services and critical businesses, Jamaicans will have to stay home on August 22, 23, 24, 29, 30, 31, and September 5 – seven days the authorities hope will tame an average positivity rate of around 39 per cent.Īllowances were made for the religious community, whose numbers approved for in-person services have been cut. Some of the country’s major business and health lobbies agree that the measure is critical.
Jamaica has been jolted back into lockdown mode owing to a suffocating third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic as the Andrew Holness administration continues to fend off deciding whether mandatory vaccination will have to be implemented.
0 kommentar(er)
