SOE READY!
Minister says declaration could be made if coronavirus cases escalate
THE GOVERNMENT is prepared to call an all-island state of emergency if the COVID-19 outbreak escalates, Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade Minister Senator Kamina Johnson Smith told the Senate on Friday.
In defending the Government’s decision not to introduce the measure at the onset of the outbreak, Johnson Smith said that the Andrew Holness-led administration was taking action in strides.
“The Government did consider that issue and determined that the better approach, the more proportional approach, for the process at the stages we have experienced is more appropriate for the use of the DRMA (Disaster Risk Management Act).
“Had this pandemic taken place before 2015, there was no other approach, perhaps it would have been automatically done, but as we are and as we have assessed the matter, it was felt that the Disaster Risk Management Act provided an appropriate mechanism,” explained Johnson Smith as the issue of COVID-19 took centre stage during a debate on four resolutions to extend the states of public emergency in the island.
Johnson Smith, who serves as leader of Government Business in the Senate, said that the Government was confident that the steps it had taken were proportionate to the threat of COVID-19.
“If we were to reach a state where it was felt that an all-island state of emergency was necessary, then it would be called …,” the minister said.
She told her colleagues in the Upper House that the Government used the recent entry of little more than 20 Jamaicans who were in Antigua and Barbuda as a pilot of its programme of controlled re-entry.
“What is excellent is that 17 of the 20 used the process absolutely seamlessly. There was a minor and another person travelling with an individual involved and it has highlighted one or two matters which can be nailed down over the weekend,” Johnson Smith disclosed.
The exercise took place because a request was made by the Jamaican Government to have the individuals transported back to Jamaica on a flight from the Eastern Caribbean country which was on its way to collect approximately 50 students from Antigua.
The Senate leader used the opportunity yesterday to pay tribute to the four-year-old boy whose death at the Cornwall Regional Hospital has been linked to COVID-19.
“The sadness of losing one so young … we nonetheless express our sympathies, our prayers for strength and our condolences to the family and loved ones to the most recent victim of this lethal disease.”
Senator Lambert Brown, during his contribution to the debate, warned young people that they should take heed from the toddler’s death.