Nearly all legislators fully vaccinated

The Government and Opposition have declared that all their combined 62 members of parliament (MPs) have received at least one COVID-19 shot. The status of the 63rd MP – independent George Wright, who is currently hospitalised with the illness – is unknown.

In a release yesterday, the Office of the Prime Minister said that of the Government’s 48 MPs, 46 were fully vaccinated and two were awaiting their second shot.

In the Upper House, the release said, 11 government senators are fully vaccinated; one is awaiting the second dose and one is not yet vaccinated.

Opposition Spokesman on Health Dr Morais Guy has said that all the Opposition’s 22 legislators – eight senators and 14 MPs – have received their jabs.

The revelations came yesterday after Prime Minister Andrew Holness told a press conference on Thursday night that he could not say if all his Cabinet ministers had taken the jab. Both the Government and Opposition yesterday renewed their call for Jamaicans to take up the COVID-19 vaccine as the island experiences a third wave of the illness.

FURTHER UPTICK

At a press conference yesterday, Guy warned that Jamaica would see a further uptick in COVID-19 cases arising from the confirmation of the Delta variant in the country.

The Ministry of Health & Wellness announced on Wednesday that 22 cases of the highly contagious variant returned positive among the results of 40 of 60 samples sent for testing.

“We are going to be seeing a lot more as we have been told two days ago that Delta was discovered in samples that were taken from the first week of July. This means that if you follow the science and incubation of 14 days, it means that Delta was here from in June,” said Guy.

“Our country [and] our people are and will continue to suffer because we are only seeing the early rise of the third phase,” he warned.