Tufton intervenes, Lucea grand market called off

WESTERN BUREAU:

The Hanover Municipal Corporation which had given clearance for the staging of a grand market in the town of Lucea in the lead-up to Christmas has had an about-face, calling off the event as a COVID-19 precautionary measure.

The decision was taken following a meeting with Health and Wellness Minister Dr Christopher Tufton on Tuesday, during which the dramatic spike in COVID-19 cases in Western Jamaica was discussed.

Prior to the meeting with Tufton, Councillor Easton Edwards of the Lucea division, and Superintendent Sharon Beeput, the police commander for the parish, had both expressed concerns about the granting of permission for the staging of the event.

At the meeting with Tufton, a motion was advanced to call off the grand market. Five of the seven councillors who were present, along with other stakeholders from the parish, supported the cancellation of the event.

Tufton, who was on a swing across western Jamaica, holding meetings with the leadership of the region’s four municipal corporations, health officials, the police, and other stakeholders, said the spike in the coronavirus was at a worrisome level in the west.

After the meeting with stakeholders in Westmoreland on Monday, Savanna-la-Mar’s Mayor Bertel Moore announced the cancellation of that parish’s grand market.

In the Hanover meeting, Tufton outlined the concerns of health officials regarding the region’s COVID-19 positivity rate from recent testing and the hospitalisation and deaths in recent weeks.

Worrying Situation

“Without going into a lot of details, the general situation is that it is concerning. The numbers are higher than normal and certainly higher than the national average in terms of positivity rate,” explained Tufton, who added that Westmoreland is now ground zero for the COVID-19 virus, which makes it imperative for the other western parishes to exercise extra caution.

“It is troubling for us in public health in terms of the government, because what it means is that, if we continue on this trajectory, it is going to have grave consequences in the months to come, and some of the decisions that we have taken in terms of restrictions may have to be tightened,” said Tufton.

Dr Kaushal Singh, the medical officer of health for Hanover, pointed out during the meeting that the parish has approximately 264 confirmed positive COVID-19 cases up to December 14, with at least five more to be added for December 15. He said that out of the 264 cases, 29 are active, and they are concentrated in Lucea east and the area known as Cue.

“If you look at our parish population, it is 72,000, and if you try to put this (the positive cases) as a denominator for that (the population), you will find that our cases are quite high,” said Singh, who further argued that over the last four months, approximately 1,455 COVID-19 tests were done, which has resulted in a positivity test ratio of 17.6 per cent.

In seeking to put the Hanover situation into perspective, Tufton pointed out that a positivity rate of 17.6 per cent is almost twice the national rate, which he said is quite concerning, adding that the risk of the virus with such a high positivity rate in the parish cannot be taken for granted.