Holness says closure of schools still on the table

Prime Minister Andrew Holness has not ruled out shutting down schools to face-to-face learning in response to rising COVID-19 cases in Jamaica.

He said that an announcement could come "within another two weeks or less".

There have been 15 cases of COVID-19 linked to 10 schools since the reopening of 216 of the country's schools to face-to-face learning. Eleven of the positive cases are students, two are teachers and two are parents.

"It doesn't mean that we are not going to close schools," Holness said, adding that the Government has put in place a protocol for institutions to follow if they have COVID-19 cases.

"The schools have been doing so and I think I have seen (that) once a case is confirmed in a school, the principal may make a decision to shut down the school for the day and deep clean," Holness said. He said that principals and school leaders are "making appropriate decisions based on their particular situations".

The country set a new one-day record for the number of new cases on Monday after 403 persons tested positive for the novel coronavirus. It was the third time in five days that the record was broken. On Friday, Jamaica recorded 328 cases of the virus. The previous highest was 263 recorded last Thursday. A total of 1,451 cases have been recorded in the past five days. The number of deaths over the period has moved by two to 359.

The situation has prompted the Government to tighten the islandwide curfew and reduce gathering limits to deal with the surge.

Jamaicans have been placed on notice for possible clampdown on the opening of institutions such as churches, schools and government offices if the COVID-19 cases continue to rise. Holness announced in Parliament yesterday that nightly curfews would now commence at 8 p.m. instead of 10, and end at 5 the following morning. The gathering limit has been reduced from 15 persons to 10. The measures expire on February 24 and Holness said there could be an expansion if the numbers continue to rise.

"We are not at that point yet but the country should know that there are other measures that we can take if we see the numbers rise," he said.

Holness said that there would be an economic impact on the country if the Government mandates that people work from home. On the social side, Holness said that the effect of mandating that no funerals or burials take place could be adverse as well.

As of Monday, there were 156 persons hospitalised, with 22 being moderately ill and 13 critically ill.