Special COVID helpline established for senior citizens
Published:Wednesday | April 15, 2020 | 5:00 PM
A special RONA Helpline Senior Care Response initiative has been set up to help senior elderly Jamaicans during the coronavirus crisis.
The Ministry of Local Government says persons can receive the following assistance:
* Medical care assistance including transportation to health care facilities for urgent care and non-financial assistance to obtain medication.
* Non-financial assistance to obtain groceries from supermarkets, markets etc.
* Other critical or urgent needs on a case by case basis.
For St Catherine, the helpline number is 876-907-4056.
The Ministry’s contact numbers in this regard are 876-618-8218, 876-879-8948, 876-879-8950.
Meanwhile, Portfolio Minister Desmond McKenzie says the interests of the elderly and the homeless have been specially emphasised, noting that the ministry has intensified the management of all the care procedures at the St Catherine Infirmary arising from the seven-day lockdown.
In addition to being sanitised, all authorised persons who come to the facility will have their temperatures checked every time.
He disclosed that the Ministry is also spending $3 million to purchase six weeks’ supply of agricultural produce through the Rural Agricultural Development Authority to assist in the feeding of residents in the island’s 15 infirmaries and golden age homes, and the homeless population across Jamaica.
McKenzie noted that enhanced arrangements have been made to care for the 171 homeless people in St Catherine.
“We have organised our efforts around specific locations in Spanish Town, Linstead and Old Harbour, to take our homeless population off the streets of the parish and to keep them indoors during the period of the lockdown. We will continue to feed them twice per day and attend to their hygiene needs and test their temperatures, in keeping with the special island-wide programme that we started on March 29.”
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