Growth, Relaxed COVID-19 Measure in Jamaica: PM

On Friday, February 10, during the sitting at the House of Representatives, Prime Minister Andrew Holness tackled issues of vaccination numbers, curfew hours, face-to-face worship, economic activity, and a host of other development in Jamaica.

The Prime Minister states “this government wants to move definitively and decisively toward returning the country to normalcy”. The curfew hours have been adjusted by an hour. Effective February 11, 2022, the new hours are 11: 00pm nightly to 5:00 am the following morning. This change will run until 5:00 am on February 25, 2022.

PM Holness commended the church; he says the established churches have been “excellent partners in the management of the pandemic”. Churches are now free to have face-to-face worship based on the capacity limit determined by the size of the place of worship. All other measures will remain unchanged.

He revealed that of all COVID-19 deaths, 98.4 per cent were unvaccinated, then made a special appeal to persons over 60 and those with special abilities to get vaccinated. “The problem with this pandemic is that you won’t know when it has ended until it has ended… and we have a low vaccination rate,” he says. The economy has indeed been affected by this pandemic, but the aim is to get to full productive capacity. “We will continue this process to give Jamaicans the opportunity to earn their livelihoods while protecting their health,” he says.  PM Holness went on to say that the country has reached its restrictions limit and may bring the Disaster Risk Management Act measures to an end.

He expresses that our society is being divided by the COVID-19 pandemic; “We must return to normalcy and return to normalcy quickly”. The government will continue to do its part such as leading the conversation, vaccination advocacy, and preparing our health system.  He closes by placing the decision on each individual to take their own health seriously.