Today, the United States—through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID)—announced US$5.2 million in urgent COVID-19 assistance for Jamaica. Specifically, these funds will support the Government of Jamaica (GOJ) to address urgent needs and fill gaps in order to accelerate widespread, equitable access to and the delivery and up-take of safe effective COVID-19 vaccines; and to reduce morbidity and...

Prime Minister, the Most Hon. Andrew Holness is hailing Jamaicans, who have taken the coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccinate as heroes and is urging them to go back into their communities and encourage others to get the jab. “You, who are here, are the heroes. You have looked past all the naysayers, all the negative, all the mischief information that is out...

Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Jacquiline Bisasor-McKenzie, is reminding Jamaicans that pretesting for the coronavirus (COVID-19) is not required before vaccination. “However, we are advising persons [who] have been exposed [and] have tested positive for the infection to wait until they have recovered from the acute illness [to be vaccinated],” she said. She said that these persons must also meet the...

Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Jacquiline Bisasor-McKenzie, says adequate supplies of medical oxygen are available for the treatment of coronavirus (COVID-19) patients. “Coming out of the weekend of [August 27 and 28) we had about 84,000 litres of oxygen that were brought in to supplement the 50-60 litres that IGL Limited could produce in-country. This week we [received] the same amount...

Prime Minister, the Most Hon. Andrew Holness, says the Government is not currently considering making coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccination mandatory. Mr. Holness said before any consideration can be given in this regard, the Government must demonstrate that an effective public education campaign was undertaken. “I am of the view that the current health situation does give strong justification that we should...

Minister of Health and Wellness, Dr. the Hon. Christopher Tufton, says a Genome Sequencing machine to test for new coronavirus (COVID-19) variants is expected to arrive in the island over the next two to three weeks. Speaking at the virtual COVID Conversations press conference on Thursday (September 9), the Minister said that “significant progress” has been made with the acquisition...

 Minister of Health and Wellness, Dr. the Hon. Christopher Tufton, says the Mu strain of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) will be manageable once the established public health protocols are followed. The Minister was speaking at the weekly virtual COVID Conversations press conference on Thursday (September 9), where he announced that the new variant of the virus has been confirmed in the...