John Byles, the chairman of the COVID-19 Resilient Corridors Committee, is urging Jamaicans to play their part in the fight against the novel coronavirus.

“Where we

are now as a nation, it requires that every individual is in. We have to take

that personal responsibility, we need moral suasion, we need peer pressure [to

ensure] that you [citizens] wear your masks, and practise social distancing.

That is the only way we are going to ‘break the back’ of COVID-19,” he said, at

a Jamaica Information Service (JIS) Think Tank in St James on Monday.

“We need to

be smart, diligent, follow the protocols, and most importantly, we need to take

personal and collective responsibility because that is the only way we are

going to go forward.”

Byles also

stressed that COVID-19 does not respect any group of persons.

He argued

that while it is important that the country’s economy commences recovery from

the effects of the pandemic, the need to flatten the virus’ curve is paramount.