Prime Minister Andrew Holness says that given the anticipated increase in novel coronavirus (COVID-19) infections, the Government of Jamaica could place even tighter restrictions to address the localised outbreak but this comes at a great economic cost.

Speaking in the House of Representatives on Tuesday (February 9), Holness argued that the government has decided to balance the needs of the economy as the island returns to nightly curfews starting at 8:00 pm effective Wednesday.

“Madam Speaker, what I want every Jamaican to understand is
that the Government can put in place more restrictive
measures but those measures come at an economic cost,” Holness indicated.

“Those (stronger) measures all result in slowing down economic activity
and hurting livelihoods. You have heard me say many
times that we have to learn to live with COVID-19. That is not
to say that we must throw up our hands and give up. It means
we must learn to go about our normal daily productive activities
but do so in a safe way so that we can continue to protect lives
while also preserving our livelihoods,” he added.

The last strong measure was imposed by the Holness-led administration in March 2020, when Jamaica banned all incoming flights and placed its citizens under lockdown. The island reopened its international borders later in June.

Admittedly, PM Holness further contended that Jamaica’s public healthcare system was also considered in the decision-making process by Cabinet, as several hospitals are nearing capacity due to the pandemic.

“While the Government is concerned about the rising number of
cases, our focus has always been and continues to be making
sure that we do not overwhelm the capacity of our health care
system. The pressures that we are seeing on our health system indicate
the need for action,” he said.

“We are also seeing increased hospitalisations across the island.
The islandwide hospital census shows significant occupancy
levels across the health regions,” the prime minister explained.

“Currently, Western Health Region is at 83% of capacity, the Southern Region is at 76%, Northern Region at 66% and Southeast Region at 59%.
Additionally, there are [several] hospitals across the island that
are at or above 90% occupancy level including May Pen,
Kingston Public Hospital and Spanish Town Hospital,” Holness added.

The situation has hit critical in Jamaica as the island confirmed a record 403 new cases on Tuesday, bringing the national total to 17,701. It has been a worrying rate of triple-digit infections, with Jamaica previously breaking its daily records last Friday and Saturday.

Over the last five days, the island has confirmed 1,451 new cases—and currently sees its positivity rates nearly tripling to 20.8 per cent.

See related articles below:

• Jamaica tops record daily COVID-19 rate for third time in five days; 403 new infections confirmed
• Tighter curfew, gathering restrictions announced as Gov’t seeks to curb spiking COVID-19 cases