The opposition People’s National Party (PNP) appears to be taking credit for Prime Minister Andrew Holness’ show of face at last night’s (February 28) COVID-19 press conference.

The PNP, in a statement on Sunday, said it was pleased its ‘prompting’ resulted in the prime minister addressing the nation after what has been perceived to be a prolonged period of hiding from the Jamaican public.

Calling Holness’ presence on the national stage “long-overdue”, Opposition Leader Mark Golding remarked: “I am glad that our prompting has finally brought the prime minister out from hiding.”

Golding further argued that the prime minister had ignored proposals from the PNP and said “nothing much that is new, other than belatedly enacting the requirement for incoming passengers to have a negative COVID-19 test result before travelling”.

The PNP, claiming the Government has managed the pandemic poorly, also noted it has been urging the Holness Administration to enact the sweeping testing requirement for many months.

According to Golding, while making no mention of the heightened vaccine demand, Jamaicans are astounded by the announcement that the country must wait a further eight weeks to receive the first batch of purchased vaccines. This, he continued, is exacerbated when several regional counterparts have already begun vaccinating their populations.

“Countries such as Barbados are now looking towards fully reopening their country and economy, leaving Jamaica stuck in the starting blocks,” the PNP statement noted.

“Jamaicans are upset that the mid-February target for the arrival of the vaccines through COVAX has been shifted back to ‘the next eight weeks’, and we are being told that vaccines will arrive from Africa, starting April. These delays will cost many lives,” Golding added.

The PNP also expressed its concern that the restrictive measure banning burials, as declared by Holness, is not in step with the nation’s reality.

“The ban on burials when morgues are already close to capacity and families cannot afford additional storage costs is ill-considered,” Golding contended.