With the island now into a new phase of relaxed COVID-19 measures, professor of public health, epidemiology and HIV/AIDS at The University of the West Indies, Mona, Peter Figueroa, is warning Jamaicans against throwing caution to the wind.

Figueroa has underscored that the Delta variant of the novel coronavirus has been exploding elsewhere and if found here could result in the present death tally doubling.

“We have had over a thousand deaths from COVID in Jamaica, and if Delta comes and causes a surge like what we saw a couple months ago, we will probably have more than another 1,000 deaths, so we need to behave in a way to try and prevent this from happening,” Figueroa, who is also chair of the Pan American Health Organization’s Regional Immunisation Technical Advisory Group, told Richard “Richie B” Burgess on the Jamaica Observer’s sister radio station The Edge 105FM, on Thursday.

Up to yesterday, Jamaica had recorded a total 50,242 confirmed cases of the virus and 1,082 deaths. A total of 111 individuals are hospitalised and 41,737 in home quarantine.

Effective Thursday, the country’s curfew hours were reduced to 11 pm to 5 am weekdays throught to Saturdays and 6 pm to 5 am on Sundays, while the entertainment sector, which has been hard hit by the restrictions, has been allowed some reopening.

Figueroa, while expressing satisfaction that Jamaicans can now breathe again to some degree, said he was leery of some aspects of the reopening.

“On one hand I think people do need a little relaxation in the protocols, so I am comfortable with even the hours of curfew, but what I am not comfortable with is where they have set the criteria, especially for indoor situations. I think going up to 70 per cent of capacity for indoor situations is running a risk because the air recirculates indoors in cinemas, for instance, [and] churches, so I would not have gone above 50 per cent because that’s where you have most of the trouble. Outdoors is much less of a problem,” he stated.

According to Figueora, with the variant making its way around the globe in no uncertain terms, the entertainment sector being reopened means Jamaicans have to exercise even greater care.

“Jamaicans love their socialising and entertainment, and the people who survived in this sector have really been hard hit, but it does require really careful planning to ensure that whatever activities are held, especially those indoors, that we do not have excessive crowding. People still have to ensure that they are wearing their masks and maintaining physical distance because so few people have been vaccinated.

“The other thing is the Delta variant is really taking off, it is now all over the place, it’s in every state in the United States, it is causing an increase in cases in the UK. Sydney in Australia has had to go into lockdown, and in South East Asia, Bangladesh is going into lockdown, Indonesia is facing an explosion, so the Delta variant cannot be taken lightly because it is far more transmissible than any of the other variants,” he stated.

He further noted that Jamaica is in a precarious position as it is yet to acquire the genome sequencing machines to identify variants of the SARS-CoV-2 which may be in the island, and is still dependent on sending samples to overseas labs.

Addressing the situation in Parliament two weeks ago, Prime Minister Andrew Holness said Jamaica is likely to have two genome sequencing machines to identify variants of the SARS-CoV-2 shortly.

According to Holness, the procurement process for each machine is at different phases.

“As you know, once it gets into procurement there is very little that any one of us can do; it has to go through. Hopefully, we should get through that shortly, and that would dramatically improve our capabilities, in fact, we would probably have capabilities to support the rest of the region. In the interim we still have to deal with the Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA) to get our results,” said Holness.