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Storms, COVID-19 could strain emergency arms – Guy

Published:Monday | May 11, 2020 | 12:25 AMAlbert Ferguson/Gleaner Writer
Dr Morais Guy, opposition spokesperson on health.
Dr Morais Guy, opposition spokesperson on health.

WESTERN BUREAU:

Jamaica’s emergency-response systems could buckle under the strain of an approaching hurricane season in the midst of coronavirus community spread, Dr Morais Guy, the opposition spokesman on health, has warned.

Sixteen named storms, with gusts of 100km/h or more, are predicted to emerge during the 2020 Atlantic hurricane season that will commence on June 1. Already, forecasters at the US-based Colorado State University have warned that the six-month period ending November 30 will be more active than normal.

“The allocation of resources is going to be competing with the COVID-19 fight if we have a major catastrophe,” Guy told The Gleaner.

“We are going to be looking at two competing demands at the national treasury for funds to rehabilitate and provide food and shelter for people who might be dislocated by the hurricane and the COVID-19 fight from the limited resources, which poses a potential challenge.”

Errol Greene, regional director of the Western Regional Health Authority, conceded that responding to emergencies stemming from natural disasters and the coronavirus pandemic at the same time could be a major obstacle.

“That, in and of itself, would be a challenge, but based on the number in the western region – we have the lowest number of confirmed cases in Jamaica,” Greene said. “We continue to do our best. Our contact-tracing people are out in the field. We are on top of our game in terms of our public education.”

WELL STAFFED

However, Greene said that the emergency operation centres in the region were in good condition and appropriately staffed to direct the response across the four hospitals and 84 health centres.

“Our emergency operation centres, all four of them in the region, plus the regional centre, have been working pretty much 24 hours a day. I don’t know what more we can do.

“Our understanding is that this year’s hurricane season is predicted to be an active one. We are putting things in place to ensure that should that prediction be true, we would have put things in place to mitigate any disaster that might have come,” Greene said.

The regional director said that the public healthcare services would meet with other stakeholders to plan supply inventory and other contingencies, including the clearing of clogged drains and waterways, ahead of the hurricane season.

Ronald Jackson, former head of the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency, told The Sunday Gleaner in April that there are serious questions about regional preparedness, “given the heavy focus on COVID-19”.

And Ralph Gonsalves, prime minister of St Vincent and the Grenadines, had warned that a “bloodbath” awaits the region and that “we don’t have a lot of time” to get a handle on the situation.