Rae Town ‘relatively safe’ from COVID-19, quarantine measures likely to end with curfew tomorrow
/ Our Today
administrator
Health and Wellness Minister Dr Christopher Tufton says consideration is being given to lifting the 14-day special area curfew, which was placed on the community of Rae Town in Kingston, when the order expires tomorrow (November 6).
“This community can be deemed a relatively safe space from the virus, so it is likely that we will discontinue the quarantine measures when it expires this week. That is a function of further deliberations,” Tufton said as he spoke with members of the media during a tour of the community yesterday (November 4).
“We have done [more than] 120 test samples for the coronavirus (COVID-19) and I am happy to report that all of them are negative… . The [presence of the virus in the community] based on the sampling of cases is not as bad as we may have anticipated. It is, therefore, likely to lead to the discontinuation of the measures,” he said.
The curfew became effective on October 23.
Tufton said the intervention was necessary when 21 COVID-19-positive cases were detected in the community.
The minister again urged citizens to continue to observe the safety protocols – frequent sanitisation, wearing of masks and physical distancing.
He also commended the Community Health Aide (CHA) teams that work with residents of the affected communities for their invaluable contribution to the Government’s COVID-19 containment efforts.
“We still need to adhere to all the protocols, so we can keep the positive rates down.”
Donovan Williams, the member of parliament for Central Kingston
Donovan Williams, the member of parliament for Central Kingston, who also toured the community, pleaded with residents not to be complacent.
“We still need to adhere to all the protocols, so we can keep the positive rates down,” he said.
Susan Strachan-Johnson, acting senior medical officer of health, said the health team will continue working with residents of the community.
“We have been working along with the community members, conducting sampling and providing health education,” Strachan-Johnson said.
“We have also trained key informants in the community, so that they can spread the message to other persons, and we will continue working with them to make sure that we keep the number of positive cases down.”
JIS
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