Cabinet Subcommittee to Review COVID-19 Situation

• Prime Minister, the Most Hon. Andrew Holness, says that the COVID-19 Subcommittee of Cabinet will meet over the weekend to review the coronavirus situation in the country. The meeting comes as the island sees an uptick in cases of the virus. Mr. Holness, who was addressing the House of Representatives on Wednesday (July 21), said that the meeting will, among other things, determine whether they may need to tighten some of the current COVID-19 measures prior to their expiration on August 10. 
• Holness further stated that the nation will be notified via press conference, “possibly Tuesday, if we do intend to make any new changes to the Orders”. 
• He noted that Jamaica recorded 122 new cases of COVID-19 on Tuesday, “our single highest day in terms of numbers in over eight weeks since May 2021”. He noted that there has also been an increase in the positivity rate. “Our average positivity rate for the last seven days was 8.8%. For week 29, the positivity rate, so far, is 9.9%. This puts us in the high-transmission range. You will recall that our target is to get our positivity rate down to 5.0% or below; we are almost doubling that now,” he pointed out. 
• The reimplementation of strict measures to contain the spread could stall the country’s economic recovery in the coming months, until the government is able to secure an adequate amount of vaccines to fast track inoculation.

(Source: JIS & NCBCM Research)