‘PREMATURE’

A leading voice in coronavirus care management in Jamaica has suggested that the Holness administration has been overhasty in scrapping pretesting requirements for entry into the island and lifting the mask mandate in enclosed public spaces amid still-high rates of transmission in key tourism markets.

The expiry of the measures on April 15 comes as the country’s infection rates have fallen precipitously since a Christmas spike fuelled by the Omicron variant, which spread quickly but was less severe and deadly than the Delta strain, which caused hundreds of deaths last summer.

Dr Mindi Fitz-Henley, president of the Jamaica Medical Doctors Association, said that while the fall-off in positivity was propitious – with the island recording a seven-day average of 5.4 per cent – the population should be cognisant that any rise in United States cases will eventually filter here.

“Despite the fact that we are seeing a downward trend in daily COVID-19 infections, it does appear that this move is premature, but only time will tell. What we don’t want is to be going back and forth because it does make things difficult for the population,” Fitz-Henley said in a Gleaner interview.

“We are aware that this is a new virus and a new variant, and things will not be a hundred per cent, but unfortunately we are learning by mistakes at this point in time, but what we do not have, unlike the other countries that people are comparing us with, is anywhere near the vaccination rate that they have.”

That concern centres on health ministry data that 24 per cent of the population is classified as fully vaccinated, well shy of the 67 per cent target missed on March 31. Jamaica is a laggard in COVID-19 vaccination, with only Haiti having a worse rate of compliance.

Travellers were required to present a negative COVID-19 test three days before arrival at Jamaica’s ports of entry and the dissolution of the mask mandate follows a scaling back weeks ago.

But tourism stakeholders have, publicly and in backchannel talks, pressured healthcare officials to ease restrictions to rekindle the flagging fortunes of the major foreign-exchange-earning industry.

The absolute abandonment of both mandates appears to be counterintuitive to advice by the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that its nationwide mask requirement for public transit be extended till May 3.

That decision was sparked by concern about an uptick in the BA.2 subvariant.

The measure was due to expire on April 18.

Meanwhile, Dr Brian James, president of the Medical Association of Jamaica (MAJ), questioned the basis of the decision and is eager to know the basis for the removal of the measures.

“What we have not heard from the public-health authorities is their assessment of the situation, so we are not certain what the situation is, but whatever it is, we have to ensure that we are ready to protect the Jamaican public,” James told The Gleaner.

Echoing Fitz-Henley’s observations, James warned against parallel comparisons of Jamaica’s healthcare status with that of the US and United Kingdom, which have full coronavirus vaccination rates of more than 60 per cent and 70 per cent, respectively.

Both countries, he said, are better able to manage the highly transmissible Omicron variant.

The Office of the Prime Minister emphasised that Public Health Enforcement Measures (Coronavirus COVID-19) Order 2022 stipulations on sanitisation, lab-testing, and isolation still apply.

ruddy.mathison@gleanerjm.com