Infirmaries halt visits

THE ST Catherine Municipal Corporation has imposed an immediate ban on visits to the Spanish Town Infirmary.

The decision was announced by Spanish Town Mayor Norman Scott during the monthly municipal meeting on Thursday.

The chairman said that the emergence of COVID-19 in Jamaica presented a threat to the elderly, the population cohort that global literature has indicated are most vulnerable to the novel coronavirus. He said that the decision was taken following an emergency staff meeting at the corporation on Wednesday.

“Having heard of the coronavirus having a second confirmed victim, we have protect those we serve,”Scott said.

“Having done that, we make it a way of life that everyone entering the building has to be disinfected.”

Minister of Local Government and Community Development Desmond McKenzie yesterday evening declared a blanket 14-day ban on visits to infirmaries.

Scott said that the corporation has also increased its stock of disinfectant, gloves, soap, masks and other supplies for staff.

Meanwhile, the St Catherine Health Department reported that it was prepared to partner with others in a public-education drive and treatment of emergency cases.

“While there is no breakout of tuberculosis at any of the penal institution in the parish, we are called whenever there is a need for our intervention, such as the Tamarind Farm situation,” Dr Francis Prosper-Chen said.

She was referring to an outbreak of scabies at a police detention facility that shares space on the Tamarind Farm Adult Correctional Centre.

Prosper-Chen said that there were isolated cases for treatment at National Chest Hospital.