COVID-19 Threatens Social Fabric in Western Jamaica

As the COVID-19 death rate in Western Jamaica continues to rise, one Anglican Reverend says the church has been grappling with social spill-offs. This as many breadwinners have been compromised and others passed on due to the virus in recent months, leaving dependents behind.

Reverend Canon Hartley Perrin says COVID-19 has further ripped the family structure apart, bringing grief and distress, highlighted by the demands of the new school term. He notes that many young persons are troubled with questions not only relating to the deaths resulting the pandemic but how it has affected their education, with the closing of physical school.

The Reverend says in some cases where breadwinners have died in the pandemic, other relatives have been forced to step in. He notes that though a lot of focus is on how the virus affects persons physically, in terms of illnesses and death, it has also put a fiancial strain on many persons due to loss of jobs and other factors.

Reverend Perrin says the full brunt of the pandemic is not left with the dead but rests with those left behind. As Family life is under threat; deaths and ill health are on the rise in the western parish of Westmoreland, this as the pandemic settles in its third wave in Jamaica.

More in this CVM Live story from Neika Lewis: