Holness answers curfew blowback

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

Speaking on Thursday, Holness said it was with great reluctance that the Government decided to impose tighter curfew hours, while maintaining it was to ensure that there is no overwhelming of the hospital system.

The capacity levels of several hospitals have been trending dangerously low. 
 
“We understand the devastating impact it can have on the economy, but we looked at the numbers in hospital and we weighed the 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 handing over ceremony on Thursday. 
 
“It’s not easy,” he lamented. 
 
Currently, Western Health Region is at 83 per cent capacity, the Southern Region is at 76 per cent, Northern Region at 66 per cent and Southeast Region at 59 per cent.
 
 Additionally, there are a number of hospitals across the island that are at or above 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. 
 
He expressed concern that while people in town centres are wearing mask, there were doing so improperly. 
 
In the meantime, Holness 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 skepticism 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. We go through that process to ensure that when we do get the vaccines here, we have the best vaccines,” Holness stated.  

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