Rooms hollowed by the coronavirus disease are telltale signs of its debilitating effect on the tourism sector, with small hotels and Airbnb operations victims of the economic headwinds. Virtually all the small hotels and guest houses a Gleaner...
A careful review of Ministry of Health data indicates that there is no case of COVID-19 on Pedro Cays, the popular fishing hamlet, off Jamaica’s south coast and the fisherfolk based at the Old Harbour Fishing Village in St Catherine want to keep it...
People of Caribbean and African ancestry in the United Kingdom (UK) admit to being concerned over the impact of COVID-19 on their communities, historically some of the poorest in Britain, with a disproportionate number of deaths among black people...
CARING FOR elderly family members during the COVID-19 outbreak is proving a challenge as it demands constant reminders to wash hands and physical assistance at a time when social distancing is being touted. The elderly fall into the high-risk group...
Two minutes after Ian Falconer dumped water from two drums on to a raging fire on Sunday, he peered through the smokey haze to see a little hand gripping an old bed. That hand was his three-year-old son’s. Falconer, an 18-year veteran assigned to...
ROSE DIXON travels eight miles daily from Coleyville to Chudleigh in Manchester to get water from a community standpipe. It is an ordeal, she said, she would rather forego, except she cannot afford to, as it is the only way to get some of the...
A two-month-old child is among 31 new cases of COVID-19 recorded by the health ministry yesterday, pushing the tally to 288. On Thursday, the Ministry of Health reported that a four-year-old child from Montego Bay died as a result of COVID-19,...
Farmers in Manchester are battling on two fronts – a near five-month drought that has ravaged crops, leaving them reeling from millions of dollars in losses made worse by the closure of dozens of large hotels from the impact of COVID-19. In...
Jamaican teachers in Japan have said that they are afraid and anxious as uncertainty sweeps the globe amid a deadly coronavirus pandemic that has crippled economies and left nearly 200,000 people dead. “I can’t wait to see the back of this virus,...
The resumption of the school term is often marked by students jostling for desks and chairs. Now, they’re scrambling for cell phones in an emerging scenario of musical chairs – especially in multichild households. Several parents and teachers who...
It’s often said that the truest test of love is during times of crises, and with seniors at high risk for adverse COVID-19 health outcomes, a number of Jamaicans have been stepping up to assist elderly persons during the pandemic. Last Saturday,...
Seventy-six-year-old Rupert Langstaffe was visibly tired as he rested against the wall outside a wholesale in Independence City, Portmore, last Wednesday. Langstaffe supports the lockdown of St Catherine parish imposed on April 15 as the “right...
The lockdown of St Catherine declared by Prime Minister Andrew Holness on Tuesday is already taking its toll on some residents of the parish, particularly the dispossessed. Men, women and children in Ellerslie Pen, Spanish Town, all have the same...
The Portmore Municipal Corporation in St Catherine has been ramping up efforts to sanitise public spaces amid the coronavirus pandemic and the confirmation of more than 30 positive cases of the virus at a business process outsourcing facility in...
Call centre Alorica has shut down its Kingston branch – its second closure in as many days – as concerns swirl about coronavirus contact tracing and the vulnerability of employees in the business process outsourcing (BPO) sector. Approximately 140...
President of the Jamaica Household Workers Union, Shirley Pryce, says a significant number of domestic helpers are feeling the pinch in the wake of COVID-19 and its impact on the country. She says that many did not qualify for certain benefits...
When Jamaica starts emerging from the COVID-19 pandemic, it should look for opportunities to raise the level of exports, says Mark Williams, CEO of Kingston Wharves Limited. “We can feed Jamaica, and perhaps we can do that well, but there is now...
Prime Minister Andrew Holness’ declaration yesterday that the Government will extend an islandwide nightly curfew is expected to further drive down murders in Jamaica, a consequential benefit to the administration’s attempt to tighten the screws...
Twenty-eight-year-old Mona Johnson*, the mother of two boys aged 11 and two, admits to be bordering on depression. She is now out of work, having been laid off recently after working three years as a domestic helper. “I really don’t know what the...
KARL SAMUDA, the minister with responsibility for the education portfolio, has lavished praise on the nation’s teachers and technocrats within the ministry for quickly pulling together measures to keep children learning while schools remain closed...
LEADER OF Government Business Karl Samuda said that despite the presence of COVID-19 in Jamaica necessitating social (physical) distancing, it has not reached the stage where the Parliament must convene virtually as yet. He did say, however, that...
WHEN IT became apparent in January that the new coronavirus (COVID-19) would become a serious pandemic, the World Health Organization (WHO) stated that each country would have to adopt untested strategies to manage the crisis. Here in the Caribbean...
A request to undertake efforts to pool rights to technologies for the detection, control and treatment of the COVID-19 pandemic is being welcomed by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Organization of American States (OAS). The proposal...
Jamaica’s already burdened healthcare system could be overwhelmed in the coming weeks as the extent of community transmission of COVID-19 becomes clearer, Opposition Spokesman on Health Dr Morais Guy has said. Guy, who is also a medical doctor,...
