JA grateful for outside help, but…

Despite an outpouring of support and offers from international partners as Jamaica fights its own battle with the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, Prime Minister Andrew Holness has said the Government, while “grateful”, will not be depending on the goodwill of other countries as a first response.

As such, the Administration stands ready to allocate more funds to this effort from the contingency set aside, should it be required, he said.

“The Government is appreciative of all the outreach and there has been significant outreach and outpouring… but while we are also actively exploring various paths of international cooperation, and appreciate all offers and potential cooperative efforts being pursued with our valued partners, the Government has determined that it could not base its response on a dependence on other countries’ goodwill,” the prime minister said while making his contribution to the 2020/2021 Budget Debate at Gordon House in downtown Kingston last evening.

He, in the meantime, took issue with criticism by the Opposition People’s National Party that the Government had been slow in its response to the pandemic, with some 15 cases positively identified in the island, of which one individual has died.

“No plan is perfect, and there are always faults with implementation. I am open to criticism and advice on improvement on our response. We all are. However, we reject the Opposition’s claim that we were late to react. While that criticism could rightly be levelled at the management of CHIKV, and babies dying in pre-natal units in those particular circumstances, it cannot be levelled at this Government’s response to health crises, especially this COVID-19 epidemic,” Holness said to roars of protest from the Opposition and approval from his colleagues in the Government benches.

Holness’s reference was to the chikungunya (CHIKV) and ‘dead babies’ crises that rocked the previous PNP Government and resulted in the reassignment of then Health Minister Dr Fenton Ferguson.

“Stone dem, Andrew, stone dem,” Transport Minister Robert “Bobby” Montague heckled at the Opposition benches.

In the meantime, the prime minister, while pointing out that it has been 10 days since Jamaica confirmed its first case and too early to make any statement on the rate of spread, warned the country to brace for worse times ahead, noting “from the data and looking at the experience of other countries, it is my duty to prepare the minds of the Jamaican people to understand that cases of COVID-19 will increase and there may even be instances of rapid increase”.

“However, I believe we have taken all the necessary measures to ensure that existing cases are contained, and new infections are minimised. This Administration has so far placed Jamaica on a good footing to be on the path of slower spread and lower infections. We are on the flatter epidemic curve,” he told the House, adding “we will, however, have to remain vigilant and sufficiently responsive to adjust measures as necessary”.

He further chastised the Opposition for being disingenuous in insinuating that the Government had been falling over itself to come up with a plan to the crisis when it hit.

“Even before our first COVID-19 case, the Ministry of Health and Wellness had developed a comprehensive plan, looking at various infection outbreak scenarios and mitigating actions. This was presented to and approved by the National Disaster Risk Management Council. The plan was costed and a budget of $2 billion prepared and approved by Cabinet. These funds were therefore available and have started to be used to increase the existing response capacity of the health system,” Holness said.

“We have been ready. There is always a standing plan to deal with natural disasters, epidemics, so it was very easy for the Ministry of Health to take existing plans for Ebola, Zika, and influenza (and formulate a response). So when you are making the accusation that we were late, you know these things are there, so you have to be fair in your criticisms,” Holness stated.

He also hit out at people he described as “weak fences” who have been refusing to abide by the rules and observe restrictions put in place to contain the outbreak.

“Every individual has a duty to do their part to personally prevent and contain the spread of the disease. It is important to take careful decisions about your health, the health of your parents or grandparents, and others in your household. No one wants to put persons in their household at risk, so it means each and every one of us must become fully conscious of the risks so we can protect our households,” Holness said.

“Refusing to abide by quarantine rules, falsely declaring travel information, failure to observe the social distancing measures, and a lack of care in observing the recommended hygiene practices make you a weak fence in the community effort to contain and slow the spread of the coronavirus,” the prime minister said, in chiding individuals he argued “should know better and who are influencers”.

In the meantime, he said the Government has secured 400,000 N95 masks and other personal protective equipment for health workers, and is spending over $150 million to develop new quarantine sites to house an additional 150 people. According to Holness, over $287 million is now being spent to retrofit various hospitals and health facilities to create surge capacity to accommodate patients during the peak of the epidemic. He also said $198 million is being used to purchase equipment like ventilators for the high dependency units in various hospitals, while $547 million is now being used to procure drugs specifically for the treatment of COVID-19.