This newspaper believes the Government acted wisely recently in deciding to allow some vaccinated fans to assemble in the National Stadium to watch the upcoming Concacaf World Cup qualifying game between Jamaica’s Reggae Boyz and the United States.

Readers will recall the initial announcement late last month that fans would not be allowed at the game because of the “delicate stage of managing the [novel coronavirus] pandemic” and logistical doubts about ensuring only vaccinated people gain entry.

But very quickly the Government’s position changed with permission being granted for the nation’s football governing body, the Jamaica Football Federation (JFF), to host a maximum of 5,000 vaccinated spectators in the 28,000-seat National Stadium.

The Government clearly heeded calls, not only from the sporting fraternity, but also groups such as the Professor Gordon Shirley-led National COVID-19 Vaccination Task Force, which had argued for fully vaccinated people to be “rewarded”.

That suggestion was by no means original. It’s a strategy being used across the globe to encourage those who are hesitant to take the vaccine and also to accelerate return of societies to some sort of normality.

Indeed, back in August, the Jamaican Government may well have missed a trick when it refused to allow limited numbers of fully vaccinated cricket fans to watch two Test matches between West Indies and Pakistan at Sabina Park. Even fully vaccinated accredited journalists were refused entry.

Ironically, during that same period — which we concede was at the peak of the third surge of COVID-19 in Jamaica — Olympic gold medallist Mr Hansle Parchment got the nod from officialdom and received police escort for a crowd-pulling motorcade through his native St Thomas. Also, since last year, even during the various surges, Caymanas Park, the home of Jamaica’s horse racing, has welcomed limited numbers of spectators on race days, regardless of vaccination status.

As we have said before in this space, such inconsistencies have the potential to generate cynicism and harm the anti-COVID-19 fight.

That said, we recognise that — as has happened before with entertainment events and the like — people gathered in large numbers can lead to spread of the novel coronavirus.

The experts have already said that a fourth wave of the virus is almost inevitable here because of Jamaica’s very low vaccination rate, the expected influx of returning residents for Christmas, and a surge in tourist arrivals during the northern hemisphere winter.

Football administrators will have to be on alert to make sure that, whatever happens, upcoming home games for the Reggae Boyz are not blamed for any uptick.

We all know that the best-laid plans can go awry. And organisers have conceded that it may not be possible to verify with absolute certainty that all fans in the National Stadium are fully vaccinated. Honest mistakes apart, this is Jamaica, where ‘Brer Anancy’ and the culture of ‘ginnalship’ are alive and well.

It seems to us that the bottom line will be for the authorities to make very sure that all protocols, including social distancing, sanitising, and mask-wearing, are strictly followed for the Jamaica vs USA game as well as other home fixtures to follow.

There must be no slip-ups.