NEW CASES 24 HRS OVERALL   Confirmed Cases 248 22,267   SEX CLASSIFICATION       Males 111 9,882   Females 130 12,375   Under Investigation 7 10   AGE RANGE 4 months to 97 years 1 day to 104 years           PARISH CLASSIFICATION OF NEW CASES       Clarendon 33 1,297   Hanover 6...

The first Joint Select Committee Meeting on the Tobacco Control Act, 2020 was convened on Wednesday, February 24 by Health and Wellness Minister Dr the Hon. Christopher Tufton. The 12-member committee, with representation from houses of the parliament, is to review the Bill that was tabled on Tuesday, December 1, 2020 in the House of Representatives. The committee will also...

The Ministry of Health and Wellness has been putting the necessary measures in place, in preparation for the rollout of the COVID-19 vaccine across the island. Speaking at a JIS ‘Think Tank’ on February 24, Director of Family Health Services in the Ministry, Dr. Melody Ennis, outlined some of the activities that the Ministry has undertaken in this regard. “We...

The Government will be executing an Apprenticeship (Scholarship) Programme in the upcoming fiscal year, which will see 80 animators being trained in intensive 2D and 3D animation. This is to be facilitated under the Youth Employment in Digital and Animation Industries project, for which $207.5 million has been allotted in the 2021/22 Estimates of Expenditure, now before the House of...

Cabinet has given approval for the award of a contract for the procurement of 16,000 packs of SD Bioline Syphilis Test Kits and 1,000 packs of Oraquick HIV test kits in the amount of US$748,280, excluding General Consumption Tax (GCT), to Recharge Distributors Limited. This was disclosed by Minister of Education, Youth and Information, Hon. Fayval Williams, during a virtual...

Farmers and fisherfolk from across the island will receive training in enterprise formalisation and capacity development under the Formalising Operators in the Jamaican Agricultural and Fisheries Sector project. The recently launched initiative is aimed at transforming largely informal operators within the Agriculture and Fisheries sector into formal businesses. Speaking at a Jamaica Information Service (JIS) ‘Think Tank’ on Tuesday, February...

Agriculture and community tourism enterprises are to benefit from the provision of seedling and chemicals, as well as capacity building, under the Government’s Rural Economic Development Initiative II. An allotment of $414.5 million has been made in the 2021/22 Estimates of Expenditure for these and other exigencies under the project, which seeks to enhance access to markets and strengthen climate-resilient...