Executive Director of the Citizen Security Secretariat (CSS), Dianne McIntosh, says the Citizen Security Plan (CSP) will be supported by robust data collection. “Data collection is very important. What we’ve had over the years is a silo approach to data collection. A more collaborative, standardised data-collection system will enable various ministries to pull information on specific communities,” she said in...

Countries, including Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) member states, should start receiving doses of the Johnson and Johnson (J&J) vaccine under the COVID-19 Vaccines Global Access (COVAX) facility, by July. PAHO Director, Dr. Carissa Etienne, said that COVAX has secured more than 100 million doses of the vaccine for 2021 and up to 500 million through 2022. She was speaking...

Governor-General, His Excellency the Most Hon. Sir Patrick Allen, has lauded new Poet Laureate, Olive Senior, for her work focusing on issues of the COVID-19 pandemic. Speaking on Wednesday (March 17), at a virtual investiture ceremony, at King’s House in St. Andrew, the Governor-General said Miss Senior’s recent collection of literary works, called ‘Pandemic Poems’, is a “book for the...

The National Spatial Data Management Branch (NSDMB) and Land Information Council of Jamaica (LICJ) are pleased with the participation and performance of students and other entrants in the virtual staging of the Post-GIS (geographic information system) Day competitions. “We are happy that those who participated were able to, and we're happy that they made the effort to participate,” NSDMB Senior...

Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) Director, Dr. Carissa Etienne, says the delivery of vaccines to the region through the Global Access (COVAX) Facility is increasing. Speaking during PAHO’s COVID-19 digital briefing on Wednesday (March 17), Dr. Etienne said that nearly 400,000 vaccines, procured through COVAX, have been delivered to countries through the regional body’s Revolving Fund Facility since last week....

The Child Protection and Family Services Agency (CPFSA) continues its child-protection programme with a series of drive-throughs covering several parishes. Regional Director of the CPFSA South East Region, Robert Williams, said that the intention is to go into communities to promote childcare and protection, especially those where the entity is seeing an increase in reports of child abuse. “We actually...

Persons in relationships who think they are experiencing intimate partner violence are being encouraged to access screening from the Victim Services Division (VSD), in the Ministry of Justice. Between January 2020 and February 2021, the VSD saw 884 clients who were victims of domestic crimes. Executive Director of the VSD, Osbourne Bailey, told JIS News that screening seeks to assess...