Charles Gordon Market ‘an Alorica waiting to happen’
WESTERN BUREAU:
T‘It is the preferred place for thousands of people to go on the weekend, but I see that market as the place that’s going to cause an increase in the number of COVID-19 cases in western Jamaica.’
HE CHARLES Gordon Market could become the epicentre for the spread of COVID-19 in western Jamaica because of vendors’ and shoppers’ resistance to social-distancing guidelines, says Janet Silvera, president of the Montego Bay Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
“It’s an Alorica waiting to happen; that’s how I feel about the Charles Gordon Market,” Silvera said on Tuesday. “It is the preferred place for thousands of people to go on the weekend, but I see that market as the place that’s going to cause an increase in the number of COVID-19 cases in western Jamaica.”
She was referring to the Alorica call centre in Portmore, which has accounted for 54 per cent, or 120, of Jamaica’s 223 recorded COVID-19 infections to date, which has triggered a lockdown of the parish of St Catherine and the shuttering of call centres for at least 14 days.
There have also been six recorded deaths from the respiratory illness locally.
“The vendors are outside of the market conducting business, and because there are so many people there at the same time, it’s very difficult for the authorities to control the large crowds,” said Silvera. “We may have to have some satellite markets in the city, for instance at Jarrett Park, or the Catherine Hall Centre.”
The proposal comes amid islandwide concerns about large crowds at markets and outside supermarkets, wholesales, banks, and clinics despite stipulations under the Disaster Risk Management Act that persons stay three feet apart. The prime minister on Monday upgraded the distance to six feet.
Montego Bay Mayor Homer Davis had previously voiced concern that the authorities may have to use strong measures to enforce compliance with regulations to keep COVID-19 from spreading.
In the meantime, Lennox Wallace, parish manager for the St James Health Department, said that his organisation will be teaming up with the police and the St James Municipal Corporation to launch, on Wednesday, an awareness campaign for vendors at the Charles Gordon Market.
“Through the Restore Paradise initiative, with the police, the municipal corporation and the Ministry of Health, we’ll be going into the market, not with a big stick, but to educate and regulate the people,” said Wallace.