Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) Director, Dr. Carissa Etienne, says the entity will continue to work closely with stakeholders in member countries and at the regional level to assist them in managing coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreaks, forecasting hospital bed requirements, and reducing transmission, particularly at the community level. “Very importantly, we are also actively reviewing the evidence and updating clinical management...

The Jamaica Social Investment Fund (JSIF) has donated equipment, valued at $2.3 million, to boost the production and sustainability of 11 microenterprises in the community of Anchovy, St. James. This has been made under the Enterprise Development Project that is being implemented by JSIF, under the second phase of the Government’s Integrated Community Development Project (ICDP). The beneficiaries include farmers,...

The Office of the Children’s Advocate (OCA) will be establishing a Child Helpline to provide 24-hour assistance to children seeking its services. Children’s Advocate, Diahann Gordon Harrison, told JIS News that the OCA aims to launch the helpline in the first quarter of this year. “What we are doing is putting together a child helpline which provides remote and direct...

The Government will begin the roll out of Shared Corporate Services (SCS) next month, with the delivery of Human Resource (HR) Shared Services. Sixteen individuals from various entities across the public sector, who will be engaged in this pilot phase, have been trained and installed in their new posts. They will operate from the Shared Corporate Jamaica headquarters at 6...

Cabinet approved three contracts totalling $906.5 million for sewerage construction and improvement works as well as a shoreline protection project. Details of the undertakings were provided by Minister of Education, Youth and Information, Hon. Fayval Williams, during Wednesday’s (Jan. 20) post-Cabinet press briefing at Jamaica House in St. Andrew. She informed that Cabinet gave approval for a $649.4 million contract...

Principal of Little Bay Primary and Infant School in Westmoreland, Keron King, says students are adapting well to the phased resumption of face-to-face classes. The in-person lessons, which started on January 11, are being held alongside online classes. Grade six students, who will sit the first of three components of the Primary Exit Profile (PEP) on February 23, attend school...

Minister of Finance and the Public Service, Dr. the Hon. Nigel Clarke, says the Government is looking to shortly resume its programme of privatising State assets, which was deferred following the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak in Jamaica. He said that among the pending engagements is the privatisation of the State’s interests in the Jamaica Public Service Company (JPS); the Jamaica Mortgage...