Holness answers curfew critics

“It is not the Government’s intention to prolong the tighter curfew hours which now starts at 8 p.m. and ends at 5 p.m. the following morning,” Prime Minister Andrew Holness said, as he answered criticisms over the new measures he announced Tuesday.

Holness said it was with great reluctance that the Government decided to impose tighter curfew hours, maintaining it was to ensure that there is no overwhelming of the hospital system whose capacity levels have been trending dangerously low.

“We understand the devasting impact it can have on the economy, but we looked at the numbers in hospital and we weighed both risks. The bigger risk to the country is that we would not want people to turn up at hospitals, struggling to breathe, needing attention and we don’t have space for them,” Holness said as he addressed the issue while at a National Housing Trust handover ceremony Thursday.

“It’s not easy,” he lamented.

Currently, the western health region is at 83 per cent of capacity, the southern region is at 76 per cent, northern region at 66 per cent and the southeast region at 59 per cent.

Additionally, there are a number of hospitals across the island that are at, or above, the 90 per cent occupancy level including May Pen, Kingston Public Hospital and Spanish Town Hospital.

Holness said the tighter curfews are not long term and there is a two-week monitoring period to see whether COVID-19 infection cases fall.

“We are going to be watching the numbers,” he said.

IMPROPER WEARING OF MASKS

The prime minister expressed concern that while people in town centres are wearing mask, there are doing so improperly.

In the meantime, the prime minister sought to drum up support for the COVID-19 vaccines, which are to arrive in the island shortly.

Holness declared the vaccine safe, as he acknowledged mounting scepticism across the island for the new COVID-19 vaccines.

“We don’t have anything to fear. We have our own set of laws established here, our policies are established, and we have an excellent set of experts in this area who are employed to the Government, or who were formerly employed, or who are experts employed to international agencies and we go through that process to ensure that when we do get the vaccines here, we have the best vaccines,” Holness stated.