good afternoon it's Tuesday December 22 I'm Anthony Lugg with the midday news
a special welcome if you're watching on onespotmedia.com
there is more advocacy for the rejection of an environmental impact assessment in
related to mining in a section of the cockpit country in Trelawny now two academics argue
that there are not enough data in the report to properly assess the long-term damage to the
environment in the area more in this report environmentalists scientists and other civic
groups have been objecting to the mining of a section of the cockpit country in Trelawny
pointing to irreparable harm that would take place with a ripple effect on nearby communities
this is in contrast to naranda and its stakeholders sharing data explaining the
massive potential economic benefits of the project coordinator of the institute for sustainable
development at the university of west indies mona dr david smith says there are not enough
figures in the report for a proper assessment and in other areas it is short on details
he gave his views in the rjr greener group town hall meeting last night fix the system
do what the attorney general the auditor general said and also follow the recommendations of
the 2010 report that clayton did and for this specific eia demand quantitative evidence and
seeing a lecture in the department of geography and geology at the university of west indismona
dr arpeta mandel raised a critical question about the risk of water contamination she argues that
even though the report indicates there is no such risk it needs more details and data to support the
conclusions if at all they have tested any water quality existing at the moment what is the water
quality surface water ground water whatever in the nearby i don't see the pre-mining stage quality
to say that okay post mining this will be the deterioration normally when uh when a development
or any on anything is proposed we see a pre and a post so i don't see specific data on the
water quality from the streams from the springs or caves or whatever sampling only data i see is the
die tracing so that is a little bit i'm not very clear about those details about the underground
flow direction those are missing from the eiu dr smith also pointed to a potential crisis
for farming communities in the cockpit country based on information in the environmental impact
assessment report the national heritage trust said look the land use pattern there is that people
don't touch the hills they use the depressions that's where people farm it's where people live
it's also where you mine nobody's mining the hills they're only mining the places where people farm
and that is something which isn't really raised or addressed properly is that the mining is actually
directly aimed at where people are currently using the land to generate their livelihoods
it's not like people are making a living on the hills and you're taking away the soil at
the bottom people are making their living in the soil at the bottom of the cockpits
and that's where you're mining and that's something which you have to bear in mind yes
you might leave the hills intact but nobody was living up there anyway ashane masters tvg news
in the meantime dr smith is calling for a revamp of the legislation which governs
mining in the country and the compensation provided legislative framework and forget the
specifics of this eia that the laws that the miners have to deal with are inadequate
we know so much more about values of in the environment and social values that we do
now than we did when the laws were written that we need to revamp those laws so that when
we're talking about compensation we actually mean something meaningful if we're talking about
restoring land we actually mean restoring land and not putting grass where there used to be trees etc
etc and one of the problems is that we have a sit a system that is not being fixed we twink sort of
fixing one thing at a time when a problem comes up but we're not fixing the system
opposition spokesman on health doctor maurice guy is calling for an intestine an extensive testing
regime to determine whether the new strain of the coronavirus is already in the country this
following the ban on all flights coming from the uk where the new strain of the coronavirus
is spreading more in this report recently a new strain of the coronavirus was detected in the uk
given the impact of the covet 19 pandemic on the island the government is not taking the new
strain of the virus lightly therefore on monday the government banned all flights coming into
the island from the uk for a period of two weeks ending january 4 2021. while that may bring some
relief to citizens regarding their safety there are concerns about visitors who may have already
arrived in the country just days before the ban took effect opposition spokesman on health dr
maurice guy raised the concern while speaking on radio jamaicas beyond the headlines on monday dr
guy said those persons must be tested to determine whether the new variant of the coronavirus is
already in jamaica the government had announced that testing and quarantining of persons who
arrived on monday but dr guy wants more extensive testing testing will not only involve doing pcr
testing but also getting samples that they can send to our international partners to indicate
for them to do further testing to indicate whether that particular variant is here we have always
been testing and it's called the testimonial genetic material whether it's the variant or
the original virus now what we need to know is whether we are seeing this variant here too we
do not have the capacity in this country to do it but we have virologists we have a lab and we have
international partners we could enter into some form of arrangement with them to find out whether
we are seeing this as well health minister dr christopher toughton says there will be enhanced
follow-up measures for persons from the uk who are already in jamaica what we will therefore do
is follow up more precisely on persons coming in from the uk so you know in a sense you would
follow on you know one in every five or one in every 10 depending on the circumstances given the
added risks around this virus and the fact that some persons have come in over the last few weeks
while this discussion has been taking place the follow-up would be intensified to see if they are
complying with the quarantine arrangements and if they have symptoms we can apply
the contact tracing and the testing as appropriate the ministry of health says some 302 passengers
who arrived on a flight from the uk on monday would be kept in state quarantine for a minimum
of 48 hours those travelers who test negative for covet 19 will be released to complete their
mandatory 14-day quarantine while those who are positive will be isolated until recovered antonio
high commission has announced a special flight from montego bay to london tomorrow
the flight will leave at 7 30 pm the special flight follows
the closure of jamaica's borders to flights from the uk for two weeks
jamaica's coven 19 death toll has increased to 288 after the respiratory illness claimed
two more lives the latest cases include a 53-year-old woman from the corporate area
and a 95-year-old westmoreland man whose death was previously under investigation
the ministry of health says another death is being investigated meanwhile a two-month-old
child is among 65 persons who tested positive for covet 19 in jamaica yesterday
this has increased the country's case count to 12 354. the health ministry has reported
that 75 persons remain hospitalized with a respiratory illness six are critically ill
and clinical virologist at the university of leicester in england dr julian tang
is predicting that kofi 19 will become seasonal in countries and vaccines will have to be received
every two years in order to build up immunity in populations dr tang who was speaking on tv smile
jamaica on tuesday says the immunity will last longer than influenza as covert 19 mutates less
and i think the vaccines will keep may have be boosted every one to two years because this virus
mutates less influenza and the immunity may last a bit longer than it does for influenza but you
may have to have the vaccine say once every two or three years and they'll still be with
us because don't forget newborn babies may not be vaccinated and they'll be susceptible to the virus
so often newborn babies who are vulnerable to all viruses that actually maintain
reservoir of the virus in the population to spread to mum and dad if their immunity is
waning over time and it's time for a break stay with us more stories when we return
welcome back continuing the news a jamaican immigrant couple was free to leave a pennsylvania
church monday after over two years using it as sanctuary anita and clive thompson stepped
outside of tabernacle united church in westfield philadelphia for the first time in 843 days
this after they received a letter from u.s immigration and customs enforcement
saying the agency will support their case to stay in this country the couple came the couple came to
the u.s at 15 years ago after they fled gang violence in jamaica just wanted to hide deep
deeper in the walls of the church and other days i just want to kick the walls down not
the physical walls of the church but the walls of injustice the walls of racism
the walls of lies the walls of a black woman don't have a voice
anita and clive thompson have seven children three of them are u.s citizens
the two youngest children stayed in the church with the couple as they hid
and the main suspect in the murder of a teacher and man of manchester last year was taken into
custody when the case was called up in the manchester circuit court bishop bishop gibson
high school teacher carolyn davis campbell was shot and killed in 2019 and her husband charged
he was later granted bill but the court has now changed that gregory campbell was charged with
the murder of his wife carolyn davis campbell who was a teacher at the bishop gibson high school
in manchester mrs campbell was fatally shot at her home in melrose muse during a home invasion
mr campbell was charged after being questioned by the police he was however released on one
million dollars bail when the case was heard again on friday the office of the director of
public prosecution dpp stated that after reviewing the files it did not believe mr
campbell should continue being out on bail upon hearing the arguments chief justice brian sykes
overturned the bail ordering that mr campbell be taken into custody on july 10 last year
gunmen invaded the campbell's home mrs davis campbell was fatally shot however mr campbell
who was also at the house at the time was not injured the manchester police said they decided
to charge mr campbell as during questioning he had given conflicting information to the police
the case is to be called up again on january 15 2021 the burton main road in saint elizabeth
was yesterday at the scene of a deadly crash twenty-three-year-old lorraine dixon a vendor of
burnt savannah saint elizabeth died shortly after midday while driving his motorcycle the motorcycle
reportedly collided with a toyota rav4 mr dixon was pronounced dead at the black river hospital
the number of road fatalities in the parish now stands at 37 the highest being recorded in the
past three years head of the saint elizabeth police division deputy superintendent nardia
sims is encouraging motorists to exercise caution when using the roadway during the yuletide season
now fisher folk in mansion in portland are appealing to the
relevant agency to address a matter that has been plaguing them for years
they complained about not having proper bathroom facilities which they say affect their business
we need a bathroom because nowhere near the fee the fisherman them the fish are women them the
people in maroon them business fields no water not their own air castile smith who has been fishing
for over 40 years said he's struggling to cope since the recent heavy rains damaged his equipment
it's the reason he's appealing to the government for assistance
we in manchester fishing village we were hard with the traps while the bad weather damage a lot of
our equipment he went into 20 roller while we could be a patriot i said look what's it
we need wrong wire for putting pump overnight in the morning twenty thousand
and twenty five thousand for a roll over 15 thousand at least and every day we can find
that but sometimes we need help from you all cayman islands housekeeper makiva bush
was yesterday handed a suspended sentence for three assault charges leveled against
him following an altercation in a local bar earlier this year when he appeared in court
bush was sentenced to two months imprisonment on each assault the charges are to run concurrently
but they were suspended for two years although the veteran politician was not sentenced to jail
he will have a conviction recorded against him he was also ordered to adhere to a curfew for the
next two months and was fined 700 us dollars for disorderly conduct the former cayman premier will
also have to pay compensation to the victim for medical expenses and emotional distress
to news in sports now athletes preparing for the postponed tokyo olympics games next year
will be provided with psychological assistance by the government details from jordan fort
the athlete's assistance program which saw 145 athletes training for the tokyo olympics receive
eighty thousand dollars a month was suspended in july following the postponement of the games
but with the cardrenial multisport event set to take place next year
sports minister olivia grange says the program will come back on board soon
but there is also an addition which has to do with mental health we're also providing support
through a mental health program through the jimmy athlete's insurance plan to help the athletes to
get back into a frame of mind to overcome the setback that they have had and to prepare
themselves to be ready for the olympics in the meantime with plans in motion to stage the
issa boys and girls championships next year high school athletics has also received a major boost
seven schools on monday got hurdles through a partnership between the jamaican and japanese
governments to assist in their development j3's president garth gale says monday's handover was
born out of a meeting between former president dr blake and the japanese authorities when we visited
three years ago we met the president blake and i met with mr amasaki and we thought of how
best they could assist us and the today is the second of of handing over of urdus to the j3as
and we in turn has given to schools that are redeemed in need of hurdles for continuing their
training program with a number of the schools in receipt of the hurdles being from the east
isa president keith wellington says it's a step in the right direction in terms of leveling the
playing field well we think that is very important um our students development depend heavily on the
resources available at the schools if you note the hurdles are shared with schools who have
less resources than some of the top schools and i think by sharing these resources amongst the less
less fortunate if i may call them that um it gives us a great opportunity to discover talents that
may otherwise go undiscovered titchfield high foga road sent androtechnical rosso and winward
road primary were the other schools to receive hurdles the handing over was done by chairman of
the tottori athletic association shinichi hamasaki and that's the midday news i'm anthony logg join
us at 7 for primetime news on behalf of the news sports and production teams good afternoon