Andrew Holness, Honorable Prime Minister of Jamaica, announced that the COVID-19 protocols would be extended by two more weeks until January 28.
These measures include a 10 pm to 5 am curfew, which was due to expire on January 13. This has been extended due to an increase in coronavirus infections caused by the highly contagious Omicron variant.
Holness spoke in the House of Representatives Tuesday afternoon and said that he was ready to ease the measures further, but that an extension was necessary.
“We would have loved to announce changes to the economic stimulation measures if it weren’t for the fourth wave.” The fourth wave has meant that we must keep the current measures in place while we get more information about the number of positive cases, which results in hospitalisations and, in particular need of high flow nasal oxygen.” the prime minister stated.
Since the first confirmed case on March 10, 2020, Jamaica now has 1,714 cases. The country has now recorded 2,502 deaths since then.
Holness encouraged more Jamaicans to get the vaccine, but he reiterated that COVID-19 “is here to stay [and] therefore we need to learn how to live with COVID-19”.
