COVID deaths could top 200 per week
Dr Jacquiline BisasorMcKenzie, the island’s chief medical officer, last night warned that Jamaica could record up to 200 deaths per week if the third wave of COVID-19 infections is not brought under control.
Speaking during an emergency virtual press conference at Jamaica House, where Prime Minister Andrew Holness announced new measures to help curb the spike, Bisasor-McKenzie said that with the Delta variant now in the island, the country is facing a significant challenge.
“If we continue along this line, what is going to happen is that just using the reproductive rate at 1.4 we are expecting that we would be moving from weekly cases of 3,500 to over 5,000 cases in another week, and the week after to be at 7,000 and then go up to almost 10,000 after September. The more cases we have, the more deaths we will have. And so therefore we have the potential that our deaths can go up from an average of maybe 60 to 80 per week to over 200,” she said. As of Wednesday, Jamaica has recorded 1,342 COVID-19 deaths, with 124 taking place since the start of the month.
As a result of the health ministry’s warnings, Holness announced seven no movement days. They will run from Sunday, August 22 to Tuesday, August 24, from Sunday, August 29, to Tuesday, August 31, and on Sunday, September 5. Holness has sought to explain why the lockdowns are over consecutive weekends as opposed to an entire week of no movement.
SEVEN-DAY LOCKDOWN
“A seven- day lockdown is not inconceivable. We have never done it before and we are always sensitive to the nature of our society where people live day to day and people have limited savings. So we have to be very careful about that,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Prime Minister last night said he could not confirm if all members of his Cabinet were vaccinated against COVID-19.
“What I can say is that we made provisions for all ministers to be vaccinated. My last report is that all of them took advantage of it, but I am not saying definitively that they did. But that was my last unofficial report. For members of parliament and senators, again, provisions were made for all members of parliament and senators to be vaccinated. I cannot say definitively, and I did not receive a report, but now that you have asked, I will ask for a report,” he said.
Holness said that vaccination is a “private matter” and while he should not go and look at somebody’s vaccination record, he could ask for ministers coming into Cabinet to show their vaccination cards.
“In other words, you can ask for it but it shouldn’t be that anyone other than a health professional would be able to have access to the entirety of any groups’ vaccination records. But I will ask whether or not all members of parliament are vaccinated and make a general encouragement for those who are not vaccinated. I would be surprised, however, if there is any large number of MPs who have not been vaccinated. There might be one or two,” he said.