PSOJ CALLS FOR SUSTAINABLE COVID-19 MEASURES
The Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica (PSOJ) acknowledges the changes to the island wide curfew hours and gathering limits announced by Prime Minister Andrew Holness in Parliament on Tuesday as part of continued COVID-19 containment measures.
The PSOJ understands these tightened measures are necessary in the wake of the spike in positive COVID 19 cases and the current strain and potential overwhelming of the public health system, however, the reduction in working hours could see some reversal of the recent economic gains and the recovery of jobs.
The Organisation, therefore, is of the view that there should be a greater emphasis on compliance and enforcement which is a more sustainable approach to controlling the spread of the virus without further curtailing business activity.
Proposals have been made by the Government for the development of a ticketing system to increase compliance as this is where our greatest challenge resides.
We implore the Government to fast track this effort of enforcement and compliance through the issuing of tickets with prohibitive fines for non-compliance. As we are all painfully aware that the Jamaica Constabulary Force have real capacity constraints, the enforcement measures could be supplemented by the Transport Authority, the Municipal Police and Special District Constables.
We recognize that even with the addition of these resources, there may still be human resource constraints to effectively manage this ticketing system. The private sector is, therefore, willing to complement these efforts through partnership with security firms.
The PSOJ urges all Jamaicans to comply with the COVID-19 protocols. Failure to comply will only result in even tighter measures and a prolonged negative impact on the livelihood of every Jamaican due to the slowdown of the nation’s economic recovery.