Is Jamaica ready to tackle coronavirus?

THE EDITOR, Madam:

I KNOW you don’t have the answers, but I’m hoping you can get them.

I have noticed that the coverage of the coronavirus has been very scarce in our nation, while 70 other countries around the world have cases of the virus, and several of them have put pandemic measures in place.

As of right now, I’m not clear how the Ministry of Health and Wellness is planning to handle the situation. Are there emergency numbers in place for us to call in the event we feel symptoms, since other countries around the world discourage public transport?

Is the country equipped to tackle a huge outbreak, re: respiration support and the relevantly trained doctors and nurses who can handle the potentially severe to the critically ill? It’s my understanding that this equates to 20 per cent of the people that contract the virus.

Have you received the tests results for the patients you had/ have in isolation? Will the nation get to know what those results are?

I don’t have to ask to know that we don’t have an adequate supply of test kits as they are in short supply around the world, but what is the ministry’s backup plan for this? Symptomatic diagnosis or CT scans, etc?

I do understand that older people are more susceptible – which may seem to bring forth a certain level of comfort, but my parents are both over 65 ... Is that old? I have several other friends 40 and over that have high blood pressure, a few with diabetes. Are these conditions considered ‘prior health conditions’ and, as such these otherwise actively functioning people are more susceptible and, therefore, the country really shouldn’t worry too much about them anyway?

I’m not clear, but I think we are being very cavalier about a situation that the WORLD seems to be taking rather seriously.

I really would love some direction, some information, advice on how we plan to take care of our ‘vulnerable’ people, as I quite like my parents and my friends. Actually, I quite love the Jamaican people as a whole and would love for us to have the best chance to face the pandemic, learning from the mistakes of other nations and rising above this COVID-19 virus with grace and unity.

TARA HIRST-BERNARD