COVID-19 Measures Extended To January 27

Prime Minister, the Most Hon. Andrew Holness, says the current coronavirus (COVID-19) containment measures have been extended for a further two weeks until January 27, 2022.

Mr. Holness made the announcement during the sitting of the House of Representatives on January 11.

“This means that the curfew hours will remain from 10:00 p.m. nightly to 5:00 a.m. the following morning, until 5:00 a.m. on January 28, 2022. All the other measures will also remain unchanged,” he said.

The Prime Minister informed that Jamaica recorded 1,714 new cases of COVID-19 for January 10. To date, the country has recorded 105,172, cases of the virus and 2,502 deaths.

Mr. Holness told the House that the daily case count has now exceeded the previous peak in the third wave. Hospitalisations have also started to increase, but the rate of hospitalisation as a proportion of persons infected is lower than in the third wave, he reported.

In addition, he said that the weekly positivity rate has increased significantly and is now at 58.6 per cent, which is higher than the previous peak of 45.2 per cent at the end of August 2021.

Mr. Holness further indicated that while the number of COVID-related hospitalisations has started to increase, it is still below the country’s COVID bed capacity.

“So far, we are not seeing an increase in the hospitalised persons requiring high-flow nasal oxygen. It is still too early to arrive at a definitive conclusion, but this is nevertheless an encouraging sign,” he noted.

The Prime Minister said that while the preliminary indications are that the Omicron variant may result in less severe illness than the Delta variant, especially in terms of the need for high-flow nasal oxygen, “we cannot be complacent”.

“Persons who are unvaccinated remain at risk, particularly the elderly and those who are immunocompromised or have comorbidities,” he pointed out.

Mr. Holness said that the Government had anticipated the fourth wave and had started to prepare, in terms of putting in place additional field hospitals and securing oxygen supply.

He noted, however, that “there are limits to how much capacity we can create. Even wealthy countries with much greater resources than Jamaica have had their health systems under stress. Ultimately, individuals and families have to take personal responsibility for their own protection.

After nearly two years into the pandemic, we all know what to do to protect ourselves”.

Mr. Holness said persons must wear their masks, wash their hands or sanitise, maintain physical distance, strengthen their immune system through proper diet and exercise, and get vaccinated.

As of 10:00 a.m. on January 11, approximately 1,241,816 doses of vaccines had been administered.

Of this amount, 646,536 are first doses, 506,951 second doses, 77,403 are doses of the Johnson and Johnson single-dose vaccine and 10,920 are third or booster doses.

“We now have approximately 21 per cent of the population fully vaccinated and approximately 26 per cent of the population have received at least one dose of a vaccine,” the Prime Minister said.