Prime Minister Andrew Holness is expected to announce tighter COVID-19 measures today as the country continues to grapple with rising levels of infection and deaths.
The current set of measures expires on Monday. Holness last week said in parliament that he would be announcing more stringent measures.
Jamaica has recorded 92 deaths between March 1 and 19, and 10,827 cases of new infections.
“Speaking in parliament on Thursday, Prime Minister Holness said he would be “announcing a new set of stronger measures designed to protect our healthcare system and save lives”.
He said that the hospitals are out of bed capacity to handle COVID-19 cases.
Two weeks ago, Holness warned Jamaicans that if the country’s COVID-19 numbers do not improve he may be forced to lockdown the country.
“A lockdown is not off the books. We have never been this close to it, but we are very close to it now,” Prime Minister Andrew Holness said at the time.
“Where we are now, the measures we have put in place, we have given three weeks for them to work. If they don’t work then there would be measures to come,”
he added.
When he spoke in Parliament on Thursday, the Prime Minister made it clear that things were getting worse.
“Hospitalisation now exceeds the beds available by as much as 15 per cent in some instances. This means that someone who needs to be taken in on a ward may not have a bed readily available and may have to wait. This places great stress on our already overburdened doctors and nurses. It potentially could impact on the mortality rate. More persons could die,” Holness said.
The Jamaican Government has imposed a ban on funerals and burials for two weeks, effective Monday, March 8. Church services in buildings are prohibited; no more than 10 persons are allowed to gather in any place; bars must close their doors by 6 p.m. and parties and events have been banned and schools have been shut to face-to-face learning, except for students preparing for external examinations. In addition, there is a nightly curfew that starts at 8 p.m. and many public sector workers have been told to work from home.
