MONTEGO BAY, St James — Chief Public Health Inspector for St James Lenox Wallace says the health department will be using the recently extended multi-agency crackdown in Montego Bay as an opportunity to widen its operation to ensure compliance of all food-handling establishments in the resort city.

A week-long operation, dubbed ‘Operation Restore Paradise’ aimed at restoring law and order in the second city, which started on Monday, May 20, was later extended for 90 days.

Wallace said he will be using the opportunity to undertake operations not only in the day, but also at night.

“We know that Montego Bay is a city that does not sleep. Throughout the rest of the operation, we intend to not only have visits during the day. We have establishments that [only] open at nights, [but] not in the day. We have vendors that do not vend anywhere during the day, but do during the night,” Wallace explained.

“We will be starting from clock [upper Barnett Street area] to in front of the transport centre beside Courts. We will be going to Jimmy Cliff Boulevard and Strand Street at the intersection of St James and Union Street, because we want to cover the area in an effective way. Mr Mayor [Homer Davis], with the support that we now have, we will ensure that all food handling establishments and all food handlers comply with the public health act. And we want to offer safe food not only to our visitors, but to the residents that we serve,” added Wallace.

Wallace, who was speaking at a press conference at the St James Municipal Corporation last Thursday, noted:

“There are areas that my officers could not visit on their own because of challenges, and now with the assistance of the police and other agencies, we would have gone in there, and we would have brought some sense of normalcy as far as public health is concern,” Wallace stated.

During last week’s operation, some 75 business establishment and 39 itinerant vendors were visited and checked, which resulted in 16 establishments being closed and 29 notices served for various public health breaches.

Wallace added that over $400,000 worth of “un-ideal food” was seized and condemned.

Meanwhile, Jamaica Public Service Company director of distribution for the south-west region, Leroy Reid, said the utility company will be using the remaining period to put in place a more robust plan.

“We are encouraged by the extension, and we will use the next few days to learn from our experience over the last several days and put in place a more robust plan and stronger intervention measures to help us restore paradise,” Reid stated.

During the one-week period, the company had removed approximately 400 throw-ups or line taps. In addition, 70 shops within the Shoes Market area with illegal connections were disconnected.

Reid said operations were also carried out in the People’s Arcade, the Charles Gordon Market and the Flanker area.