$200m more for Jamaica's dengue fight
Published:Tuesday | October 10, 2023 | 5:44 PM
Prime Minister Andrew Holness has announced approximately $200 million more to tackle Jamaica's dengue outbreak.
He gave the update in Parliament on Tuesday.
Holness says $70 million will go towards schools. They are to work in partnership with the National Solid Waste Management Authority.
Some $126m, or $2 million per constituencies, has been set aside for household and community clean-up exercises.
The allocations total $196 million.
Last week, Health Minister Dr Christopher Tufton announced a $331m-mitigation programme to respond to the dengue situation.
The Ministry of Health and Wellness declared a dengue outbreak in Jamaica on September 23.
The declaration came as the ministry's National Surveillance Unit advised that Jamaica has surpassed the dengue epidemic threshold for July and August and is on a trajectory to do the same for the month of September.
As of September 29, data from the ministry's National Surveillance Unit showed that the number of presumed, suspected, and confirmed dengue cases increased to 1,117.
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