KINGSTON, Jamaica — Some 300 youth workers are now gathered at the Jamaica Conference Centre in downtown Kingston where the first sensitisation session for Zika virus preparedness is underway.

The youth workers are from a batch of 1,000 people the Ministry of Health is employing as part of its zika virus preparedness activities.

Those being trained today will be deployed to St Catherine, St Thomas, Kingston and St Andrew – parishes within the South East Regional Health Authority. They will be tasked with sharing information about Zika virus within the respective communities and working to strengthen the vector control programme.

The workers all donned white T-shirts with the slogan: “Keep your surrounding mosquito free”.

After today’s training session, which will include a presentation by entomologist Sherine Huntley-Jones, subsequent two-day training sessions will take place in each parish and will be done by the respective parish health departments.