JAMAICA’S entertainment sector’s efforts to get back in business may have suffered another setback over the past weekend.

The Ministry of Health and Wellness confirmed Saturday that over the previous 24 hours the country reported a record 328 new COVID-19 infections, eclipsing the previous day’s 263 cases, with the main entertainment locations of the Corporate Area (Kingston & St Andrew) and St James registering 70 and 53 of the new infections, respectively.

To date, more than 16,000 people have tested positive while the virus has claimed nearly 400 lives.

This was just hours after Minister of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport Olivia Grange confirmed finalisation of arrangements for the safe reopening of the sport sector, as a precedence to similar treatment for the more volatile entertainment sector.

Grange made the announcement hours after lengthy discussions with Minister of Local Government and Rural Development Desmond McKenzie; Minister of Health and Wellness Dr Christopher Tufton; and the technical teams from the three ministries about the new protocols to be approved by the Cabinet.

“All three ministries worked diligently on developing the arrangements for the resumption of sports, and we continue to work on protocols for the safe reopening of the wider entertainment sector,” she told the Jamaica Observer.

However, members of the entertainment fraternity, who have been clamouring about their failure to earn during the pandemic, had been hoping to hear more far-reaching plans than those disclosed by the minister.

The timing for resuming normality in the sector, according to the minister, will depend on the outcome of these new protocols for sport, which are to be added to the Disaster Risk Management Regulations this week.

She says the new sports protocols are opening the door to an incremental return to normality by both sport and entertainment, with sport being the first to be tagged for creating the environment for that to happen.

“That’s why we are doing this event by event, and these events will have to be without spectators because the ministries involved have to ensure that the changes do not outpace the climate, and [that] negative numbers [do not] get any larger,” the minister noted.

“We are going to discuss these developments as we go along but for now, the schools and so on can go ahead with their time trials and other preparations – but remember, there can be no spectators,” she reminded.

She added that discussions will also have to be held with various bodies within the entertainment sector, separately, and the Government will also continue to provide some grants to assist the industry, in areas where they are most needed.

The local entertainment industry, which is one of the hardest hit by the COVID-19, was also among the first to suffer a shutdown due to the pandemic. It was reported in December that about 1,600 entertainment practitioners had benefited from some relief under the COVID-19 Allocation of Resources to Employees (CARE) Programme that was implemented by the Government to help Jamaicans affected by the epidemic.