Rampant COVID breaches anger minister

Event promoters and some restaurateurs were yesterday called out for their barefaced breach of the Disaster Risk Management Act, the main law being used by the Government to control the spread of the novel coronavirus.

Desmond McKenzie, the local government minister, told Parliament yesterday that some restaurants have been operating as night clubs and several promoters are staging events despite not being issued with permits. Even as he outlined what he called a "worrying decline in the level of compliance" among operators of community bars and taverns, McKenzie said that people across all spectrums of the society are breaching the law.

The minister displayed a flyer of one event, which he said has been advertised for Club Utopia in Bull Bay, St Andrew, today. The event, dubbed 'Shut Yuh Mouth With Yuh Likkle Bit A Money', promised bikini-clad girls and giveaways every hour. McKenzie said that the police have been alerted about the event.

He said that an investigation is currently under way into the staging of an event on Dunrobin Avenue, St Andrew, last weekend. According to McKenzie, approximately 150 motor vehicles were counted outside the venue.

"The municipal corporations across the country have not granted any permit for any event at all for the last five months," McKenzie said. He said there are at least 300 parties that are held across the island weekly.

National Security Minister Dr Horace Chang said that 2,984 violators of the act have been arrested since March 30.

Full extent of the law

"Our law-enforcement officers are resolute in their pursuit and shutting down of these illegal events. The organisers of these events will also be pursued to the full extent of the law," Chang said.

Meanwhile, McKenzie called out a list of events that he said would be held in breach of the law. It includes Kidz Mania, advertised for December 24 at Bourbon Beach in Negril, Westmoreland. The list also includes Dub Club Live, which he said takes place on Wednesdays on Skyline Drive in St Andrew, and Beat Street Pop-up market, advertised for December 20 on Orange Street in his Kingston West constituency.

The entertainment sector was shut down in March after Jamaica recorded its first few cases of the novel coronavirus. It then reopened under strict guidelines on July 21, but McKenzie said that there were rampant breaches. As a result, further measures were imposed on the sector as a means of containing the COVID-19 virus.

"It is not the Government's intention to stifle the entertainment sector. ... but we are guided by the advice of the health sector and we are saying at this time, no permit for any event. No parties, no bike shows, neither round robins, neither open nor 'shut yuh mouth'," McKenzie said.