PM holds separate meetings on COVID with Opposition, controversial pastor Al Miller

The Government and the Opposition have met to discuss the current COVID-19 crisis in Jamaica.

The country is in a third wave of the virus which has seen rising infections, deaths and hospitalisation.

The talks involved Prime Minister Andrew Holness and his deputy Dr Horace Chang along with Leader of the Opposition Mark Golding and his party's General Secretary Dr Dayton Campbell.

In a tweet, Holness stated that the parties discussed the national vaccination strategy and ways in which the Opposition can participate, among other matters.

“I'll continue to play my part in promoting the national vaccination programme so that the country can emerge from the vice grip of the pandemic,” tweet Golding about the meeting.

“We remain open to sharing our ideas with the Government as to how we can have some changes to make things better for the people of our beloved country,” Campbell tweeted.

The meeting came days after Golding delivered a national address in which he made a raft of proposals on Jamaica's response to the COVID-19 surge.

Among other things, he called for the establishment of a high-level public/private sector committee tasked with governance of the procurement of oxygen supplies and the logistics of oxygen delivery, the prioritisation of equipment to test for COVID-19 variants, COVID testing upon arrival in Jamaica and that follow-up by the public health system should be rigorously enforced, and that all visitors should be vaccinated.

Meanwhile, the Prime Minister also indicated that he had a separate meeting on Friday with Reverend Al Miller to discuss various topical issues including his recent statement on vaccination.

He did not reveal the outcome of the talk.

Miller has faced criticism after coming out against the vaccination of children against COVID-19.

His argument that there is not enough information to support the inoculation has been rejected by public health experts.

The Government last month began offering the two-dose Pfizer vaccine to children 12 and older as it seeks to get the country to a point of facilitating face-to-face teaching.

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