Dear Editor,

On March 17 of this year the Jamaica Chamber of Commerce (JCC) acknowledged and welcomed the withdrawal of certain COVID-19 measures per the Disaster Risk Management Act.

At that time our association indicated our belief that businesses and consumers alike were certain to embrace the relaxation of measures that limited their ability to safely go about their business day or night. At the same time, too, we urged individuals, businesses, and the authorities to act responsibly in the knowledge that Jamaica and the rest of the world were not yet out of the woods with respect to that pandemic.

The JCC wishes to reiterate that note of warning today.

We cannot, in a joined-up world, ignore the fact that a growing number of countries are seeing worrying increases in the number of people who are falling prey to two of the most resilient and infectious variants of the virus — the Omicron BA.4 and BA.5 strains. Indeed, per the data collected by the World Health Organization (WHO) in recent weeks, the numbers have been averaging a 20 per cent spike overall in some 110 countries worldwide, resulting in a rise in fatalities in three of the six regions that it monitors.

Here in Jamaica, for much of this month, we have been averaging a positivity rate of approximately 20 per cent. This is not good news.

At the time of the cessation of the curfews, the health authorities wisely encouraged the need for individuals to maintain good personal practices, including the wearing of masks in public spaces, regular hand-washing, and sanitisation of work environments as well as paying attention to ventilation and density.

It is encouraging to note that many businesses are still today insisting that their clients maintain those practices in their workplaces. Some businesses have also reconfigured their operations as they have derived benefits from empowering their employees to remain productive under work-from-home or flexi-work arrangements.

We want to encourage our firms to continue those best practices, such as temperature checking and rigorous sanitisation and to resist the urge to phase them out any time soon. Indeed, many of these should represent the “new normal” in their operations.

As someone put it recently, “We might be tired of COVID, but COVID isn’t tired of us!”

What is not clear to us, though, is what the authorities see as their role going forward in the face of the reality that BA.4 and BA.5 — and such other variants as are inevitably going to come down the pike — will most likely continue to plague the world for years to come.

When the Government put out its comprehensive plans in Parliament in 2020, it targeted a 65 per cent vaccination take-up by the end of March of this year. It isn’t clear to us whether the authorities no longer have a target in mind, even if achieving it is dependent on moral suasion rather than on mandates.

It is a fact that many Jamaicans, like many of their peers worldwide, strenuously resisted the pleas to take the vaccine. By the most generous of estimates, fewer than 30 per cent of our nationals are today vaccinated, and way fewer than that — likely in the single digits — are boosted. Do the authorities think those to be appropriate figures in light of our national objectives for economic growth?

In our view, it is one thing to say that we should, as citizens, assume responsibility for our actions and make certain health decisions for ourselves and for our families; however, it is quite something else to take what seems like a hands-off approach with respect to advising the public (even knowing that not all will listen) about the issues associated with the ongoing problems that surfaced with the first appearance of COVID-19.

We know, for instance, that earlier this month the BA.5 variant was detected in the Cayman Islands and in Trinidad and Tobago. Has it yet surfaced here in Jamaica?

As such, we believe that the Ministry of Health and Wellness should continue its campaign to encourage the willing or the persuadable to take the vaccines and that a part of its thrust be focused on the vaccine-hesitant. We ask the ministry, too, to let us know where we have reached with respect to the education system and trying as best we can for the widespread vaccination of our children. Our nation cannot afford another cohort to endure the tribulations our children experienced in 2020 and 2021.

Let us, as far as possible, commit to shaping our future rather than leaving it all to chance.

Ian Neita

President

Jamaica Chamber of Commerce

info@jamaicachamber.org.jm