More COVID clampdown

Holness says these are not normal times

Jamaicans have been placed on notice to expect a spike in the number of people testing positive for the new coronavirus COVID19 in short order.

The country’s chief medical officer, Dr Jacquiline BisasorMcKenzie, said that

Jamaica is rapidly approaching the transmission phase of the disease, which means that many people in the general population may be carrying the virus and are undetected.

These people, having gone under the radar, have been infecting unsuspecting persons in the population.

“Everybody would need to start being very responsible about this,” she said.

“We have already identified 316 beds in our hospitals, in wards that we called our COVID wards, that we are preparing to admit persons who would need hospitalisation,” Bisasor-McKenzie said.

She added that additional equipment that are needed for highdependency care are being procured. Describing the novel conoravirus as a “very serious situation”, Prime Minister Andrew Holness said it is “not a time for panic” even as he stressed that these “are not normal times”.

In addition to earlier lockdown measures, Holness announced that effective March 25, all persons 75 years and older must stay at home for the next 14 days.

All public sector workers, 65 years and older must work from home. The measures, however, will not apply to parliamentarians.

Persons who have entered the country since March 18 will be required to be quarantined for 21 days.

Schools are to remain closed until at least the end of the Easter term, barbershops and hairdressing saloons have been placed under tighter restrictions, and no more than 10 persons can gather in any space, and no more than two persons should be waiting for service.