Jamaica plans to reinstate its mask mandate in public places following a recent increase in COVID-19 cases. Prime Minister Andrew Holness made the announcement on Friday.
“It is going to be a requirement shortly for all of our citizens to wear their masks. After two years, everyone should know how to behave in order to protect themselves from the virus,” Holness said during a public engagement in St. James.
The Prime Minister, however, did not announce a date for when the mandate will come into effect.
An increase in COVID-19 infections on the island had also forced the Ministry of Education and Youth to mandate the wearing of masks in schools effective yesterday.
In a bulletin on Thursday (May 19), the Ministry said that school administrators have been reporting an increase in suspected and confirmed COVID-19 cases among staff and students.
Holness’s plan to reinstate the mask mandate islandwide comes days after the declaration of the fifth wave of COVID-19 on the island.
“Upon reviewing the epidemiology data, we can confirm that Jamaica is currently experiencing the fifth wave of COVID-19. Based on a review of the epidemiological curves for confirmed cases and reproductive rates to identify the inflection point for increased cases. The inflection point for the fifth wave occurred around April 20,” the minister explained. Dr. Tufton noted that the Omicron BA2 variant is likely driving the wave.
Prime Minister Holness also said that the Government is closely monitoring the COVID-19 situation in the country and would take appropriate action.
“Clearly, if our monitoring shows that we need to take certain preventative actions, we will very quickly and very rapidly mobilise. We have never demobilized; we are still prepared and ready to act,” he said, speaking on May 18th, shortly after Tufton’s press conference.
“I believe the Ministry of Health [and Wellness] would have alerted the nation today that we are in the fifth wave, as we had always expected, but what we have observed is that citizens may have become complacent believing that the pandemic is at an end,” he said.
The Prime Minister stressed that the Government never declared that the pandemic was over, but that it was in the endemic phase “meaning that we are going to have to learn to live with this thing; it will come over and over and over again”.
“What is happening now is that we are seeing increased infections being detected as we go back to our full operations, including going back to school. So, we are encouraging all Jamaicans to protect yourself… we know the public health protocols now,” he said.
