KINGSTON, Jamaica— Prime Minister Andrew Holness has acknowledged the likelihood of civil unrest in the country, the longer the Government is forced to implement and enforce COVID-19 restrictions to contain the spread of the coronavirus on the island.

“It is a very difficult position (the continued restrictions) for any government in a democracy to take because it requires the government to impose on persons’ requirements and restrictions that infringe on individual rights,” Holness stated.

He was speaking Monday during a COVID-19 press conference where he announced tighter measures including a shorter curfew and a ban on entertainment events over the next three weeks as part of measures to combat a surge in new coronavirus cases that are threatening to overrun the country’s hospitals.

“This is not a position I take lightly; no one wants the pandemic to end more than I do because we spend so much time as a government trying to deal with it and we’re distracted by other things,” Holness added.

The prime minister said he has received calls from members of the society who argue that the continued imposition of restrictions is untenable.

“That is not a long-term solution, the various partners, stakeholders and citizens have sacrificed quite a bit. It hasn’t come to the fore, people can’t see the number of persons who can’t pay their mortgages, who’re on the fringe of losing their homes, the businesses that are about to collapse…” Holness noted.

“By and large there’s a sense that there’s normalcy but seething underneath this sense of normalcy are many threats including the threat of civil unrest and social disruption which the government has to pay keen attention to,” he stated.

The prime minister said that in managing the pandemic the government must consider what the chief medical officer recommends, what the scientists recommend and what other countries are doing. He said his administration must also look at the level of investments in the country, people’s employment, people’s lack of income, as well as the psychological and emotional fatigue that people are under “and then we come to a balanced decision”.

“It is that balance that has kept the society together (yet) there are those whose sole existence is to tear that balance apart,” he lamented.