5,000 under COVID prison threat
Published:Thursday | April 2, 2020 | 12:23 AM
The approximately 5,000 people who returned from overseas between March 18 and 23 and who have failed to make contact with the Ministry of Health and Wellness could face prosecution for breaching the Disaster Risk Management Act. They could face fines of $1 million or 12 months’ imprisonment.
Permanent secretary in the Ministry of Health and Wellness, Dunstan Bryan, yesterday revealed that the police have been instructed to serve notice that action could be taken against persons who continue to violate the law, placing the country at greater risk of spreading COVID-19.
Repeated calls have been made by Prime Minister Andrew Holness and health officials for the persons who arrived during that period to self-quarantine and make contact with the health ministry.
Bryan said that the health ministry, the Passport, Immigration and Citizenship Agency, Jamaica Customs, and the Ministry of National Security are collating a list of all the persons who came into the island over the specified period.
“The process has begun, and persons will be checked at home for their quarantine status. Already, we have seen where several homes have been checked, and some persons have not been adhering to the quarantine requirement, and the police have been instructed to first serve a notice and then to serve the necessary documentation for prosecution,” Bryan told journalists yesterday during a digital press conference staged by the ministry to provide an update on developments related to COVID-19.
Quizzed about the number of ventilators in the country yesterday, Chief Medical Officer Dr Jacquiline Bisasor McKenzie said that the ministry has received three ventilators and another 23 will arrive today.
However, Health and Wellness Minister Dr Christopher Tufton warned that notwithstanding all the various strategies employed by the Government to deal with the pandemic, Jamaicans who continue to ignore precautionary measures pose a serious challenge.
“We will not have enough ventilators, frankly speaking, if we get the type of outbreak associated with indiscipline or a lack of observation of the measures,” he stressed.
Meanwhile, Andrews Memorial Hospital has taken the decision to accommodate medical and surgical patients from the Kingston Public Hospital.
KPH has cleared two wards to deal with COVID-19 patients. Andrews Memorial has agreed to take in patients from the public hospital.