BASSETERRE, St. Kitts - FOLLOWING the territory breaking its one-day confirmed cases of COVID-19 record over the last weekend, government officials in Jamaica will be moving to clamp down on lawbreakers of the protocols on the island.
This comes as the territory on Sunday (Mar. 7) recorded 878 confirmed cases of the Coronavirus, topping the more than 700 that were recorded earlier in the week.
Jamaica’s Prime Minister, Andrew Holness, during his recently held press conference, announced that the Government would be taking stringent measures to combat the increasing numbers if the virus continues to spread.
Among the measures he proposed is a national lockdown, which he noted would affect the country’s economy.
He said: “These measures will have an impact on the economy. It will have [an] even greater impact on your ability to move”.
The Prime Minister lamented that Jamaica is heading into the “danger zone” where the numbers would continue to rise, noting that “if we do not get these numbers down, it is likely that the mortality rate could also rise”.
Jamaica is one of those territories in the region that has reported a large number of cases of the virus.
To date, the Government has reported 27,465 cases with 460 deaths on record.
The Government is also moving to ticket residents found not wearing face masks in public; a similar measure that most territories are implementing to ensure full compliance with COVID-19 protocols.
“The whole ticketing process is now at our Legislative Committee, which is the penultimate stage before it reaches Parliament,” Holness revealed.
Meanwhile, the Government will today begin the roll-out process of its vaccine drive where approximately 3,300 people are expected to receive the first jab.
That comes as the island had received its first shipment of the AstraZeneca Vaccine from the Government of India.
According to media reports, Jamaica received 50,000 doses of the AstraZeneca Vaccine with the first set of jabs going to frontline workers.
