The Meteorological Service of Jamaica (Met Office) is urging Jamaicans to prepare for higher-than-normal temperatures over the summer period, which begins on June 20 and ends September 22. Director of the Met Office, Evan Thompson, said that already, daytime temperatures have been above normal, with Montego Bay recording up to 34 degrees Celsius and Kingston 33.5 degrees in the month...

Commissioner of the Jamaica Fire Brigade (JFB), Stewart Beckford, says $30 million is being spent to rehabilitate the Black River Fire Station in St. Elizabeth. "We have already commenced preliminary work, in terms of the processes we will go through," he told JIS News. Mr. Stewart pointed out that the project is being carried out in two phases, adding that...

Prime Minister, the Most Hon. Andrew Holness, has called on members of the Organisation of African, Caribbean and Pacific States (OACPS) to work together to address the development challenges posed by the current global pandemic. Mr. Holness, who was addressing the first virtual Extraordinary Inter-Sessional Summit of Heads of State and Government of the OACPS on Wednesday (June 2), said...

National Health Fund (NHF) Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Everton Anderson, says approximately 70 per cent of the medical equipment and supplies being sourced to further bolster the Government’s national coronavirus (COVID-19) response for Jamaica, has been received. “We have received additional ventilators, monitors, intensive care unit (ICU) beds, and several other pieces of equipment that [were] ordered over a number...

Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, Senator the Hon. Kamina Johnson Smith, has called on support from Germany in removing Caribbean Community (CARICOM) countries from the European Union’s (EU) money-laundering blacklist. Jamaica is among four CARICOM nations named in a new EU anti-money laundering and terrorism financing list published in May. Speaking at a virtual meeting of Foreign Ministers...

Anchovy High School in St. James is assisting families of students affected financially by the novel coronavirus (COVID-19), through a donation of $250,000 worth of food items from the institution’s Past Students’ Association. President of the Association, Albert Ferguson, handed over the food items to Principal, Lavern Stewart, at the school on June 2. Speaking with JIS News, Mr. Ferguson...

The House of Representatives, on Tuesday (June 2), approved the Fiscal Administration and Audit (Suspension of Fiscal Target Requirements) Order, 2020, to suspend Jamaica’s fiscal rules until March 2021 as a result of the economic impact of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Minister of Finance and the Public Service, Dr. the Hon. Nigel Clarke, said the fiscal rules were given the...