MONTEGO BAY, St James — The St James Health Department is preparing to deal with any potential increase in the mosquito population in the parish during the hurricane season now underway.

The 2019 Atlantic hurricane season began on June 1 and ends on November 30.

In a recent interview with JIS News, chief public health inspector, Lennox Wallace, noted that there are often increased complaints from the public about mosquitoes during the period due to a rise in rainfall.

He said that measures were being put in place to deal with any eventualities.

“In the next two weeks, we will see the employment of 64 vector control workers,” Wallace said, noting that they will join the previously trained personnel who were brought on board to address the outbreak of dengue earlier this year.

He said the health department would also be looking into securing additional resources, including vehicular support, for vector control and public education.

In the meantime, Wallace said Operation Restore Paradise has enabled the health department to reach more communities.

“We are able to go into communities much more freely and to maintain public health and to ensure that what is consumed meets the public health regulations,” he said.

He said that the health department has visited more than 127 food establishments, and 41 vendors. He informed that 39 notices were served and nine operations ordered closed.

Wallace said the work of the health department is to ensure that these establishments are up to the public health standards.

“So we will continue to guide them and to ensure that by August (when Operation Restore Paradise ends) we would have completed another successful programme in the parish,” he said.

Operation Restore Paradise, which began on May 20, is part of the social intervention aspect under the State of Public Emergency (SOE) that is currently under way in the parish.

It is an initiative of the St James Municipal Corporation in collaboration with the police and other agencies.