Prime Minister Andrew Holness has declared states of emergencies (SOEs) in seven parishes across the island, due to an increase in violence in parishes such St Catherine and sections of Kingston and St Andrew.

Other parishes include St James, Westmoreland, Hanover and Clarendon, and the SOEs will last for a period of 14 days.

Holness made the announcement today (November 15) during the emergency press briefing at the Office of the Prime Minister in St Andrew, where he said the Government is also issuing these SOEs as proactive measure ahead of the holiday season.

“It is important to note that we are also approaching the Christmas season and this will require the deployment of even greater resources, sometimes resources that our security forces do not have,” said Holness.

“The underlying threats are such that it will cause an increase in the number of murder and homicides that we see going into the next few weeks and indeed we have seen an increase in murders overall.”

He added that the crime rates in these parishes are “a cause for concern” and the SOEs are being instituted due to requests from members of parliament, community members and the Opposition to help tackle the issues.