THE Opposition People’s National Party (PNP) has chided the Government for what it says is its slow response to the threat of the coronavirus (COVID-19) and has called for urgent and decisive now that two people have tested positive.

Addressing a media conference at his office in St Andrew yesterday, Opposition Leader Dr Peter Phillips declared that the PNP will not be seeking to score political points off the coronavirus threat but stands prepared to work with all stakeholders to address the issue.

“We have a deep national crisis that requires everybody to pull together, especially as there is so much fear. We know that in a few days the number of reports is going to increase sharply as has been the case in other countries,” said Phillips.

“We are trying to be helpful in the People’s National Party and I have asked all our MPs (Members of Parliament), candidates and parish councillors to be present in communities assisting in the communication of the best preventative measures that citizens can take.

“I have asked them to visit schools, churches, visit the elderly, provide hand sanitisers, mask and gloves where we can find it,” added Phillips as he charged that many of these supplies are in limited circulation.

According to the Opposition leader, the most important lesson from previous crisis was that Jamaica should have been prepared for the onset of the COVID-19 and much of the $7 billion, which the Andrew Holness Administration has now allocated, would have delivered more if it had been spent earlier.

He said the country should have been stockpiling sanitisers, gloves and protective gear so that there would not be a case where the first responders who travelled to Bull Bay, St Andrew — the location where the first person who tested positive for COVID-19 in Jamaica visited — had to be staying a distance away from the house because they did not have the correct protective gear.

“It is better to act decisively early and contain and restrain the spread of the infection, than to wait until it gets out of hand and then try to pull it back,” said Phillips

The Opposition leader’s call for decisive action was echoed by the party’s spokesman on education, Peter Bunting, who urged the Holness Administration to make an early call on the closure of schools.

Bunting told the media that while he had been briefed by minister with responsibility for education Karl Samuda about the protocols surrounding the closure of schools, it was a concern that educational institutions could be the ideal place for the transmission of the virus.

“While we understand that the Ministry of Education is awaiting advice from the Ministry of Health to activate its protocols, we encourage them to be decisive when they arrive at those triggers,” said Bunting, hours before the prime minister announced that schools will be closed for an initial 14 days, starting today.

In the meantime, the Opposition spokesman on health Dr Morais Guy called on the Administration to establish clear-cut policies for medical personnel to deal with the virus.

“We urge the Government to ensure that there is a clear cut policy which can trigger a cascade of activities when a case is presented. The concern right now is that some hospitals do not seem to know what to do when a suspected patient is presented to a particular hospital and it is seemed to done in an ad hoc manner,” said Guy.

He also called on the Ministry of Health to ensure that there are adequate testing facilities, materials and supplies to check for cases of the virus in Jamaica.