good afternoon i'm vashon brown with the middle news a special
welcome if you're watching on onespotmedia.com
the Government is coming under fire after the circulation of videos of scores of party
goers breaching covid 19 protocols in Negril, Westmoreland. Now we will have reactions from
stakeholders in the local entertainment interests later on but first health and tourism interests
say no permission was granted for the event to go ahead oshane masters begins our coverage
mocha fest 2021 brings together party goers from around the globe to negro Jamaica
the event was initially cancelled in 2020 because of the covid 19 pandemic but it was back again on
the agenda officials from the ministry of tourism say permission was not granted for the event to be
hosted however on the visit to Jamaica website which is operated by the Jamaica tourist board
the party was still being promoted up to Thursday it was subsequently taken down we've been trying
to get officials from the Jamaica tourist board to comment via phone but that has proven to be
unsuccessful however senior strategists in the tourism ministry Delano siverite in a tweet
said that the ministry is appalled and a full investigation has been launched health minister dr
christopher toughton also commenting on the party via twitter said neither the savannah lamar health
authority or the ministry of health and wellness gave permission for the event to be staged
the tourism product development company tp deco has since revoked the covert 19 compliance
certificate of rex cafe in a statement released earlier the company said that the tourism product
development company limited the tp decoy which is to advise that further to the breach of cover
19 health and safety protocols at the risk cafe in the grill tp deco has withdrawn rick's cafe's
covert 19 compliance certification with immediate effect it says the popular western jamaica hotspot
will be required to undergo a recertification exercise to ensure strict adherence to the
established covert 19 health and safety protocols before it can be allowed to accept visitors again
the operators of rick's cafe has since apologized for the overcrowding
in a statement it said quote the event became crowded than expected under current protocols
for entertainment venues end quote but it says some covey 19 measures were carried out to include
temperature checks hand sanitization and face mask were required for entry however based on the video
circulating there were limited number of masks worn at the actual event ashane masters tv 10 news
so what exactly is mocha fest javon keyes explains the organizers of mocha fest dub it as a vacation
party experience the seven day series of events in negril is its sixth year after postponement
in 2020 due to kovic 19 despite the gathering and event restrictions the 2021 staging is advertised
to have kicked off on monday may 24 to run until the 31st patrons had to fork out a minimum 310
us dollars for the 5-day experience and 40 us dollars more for the full seven days mokafest
reports that tickets were sold out by may 14. the offerings also include packages for a hotel stay
mokafest however isn't just a local event it has an offer six other parties in various destinations
to include mexico brazil and atlanta which would be next in the series scheduled for july this year
the organizers have also already opened bookings for the 2022 event scheduled to begin may 26th
javon keyes tvj news now as i said earlier on we will hear what entertainment entertainers have to
say about this latest development involving mocha fest later on in the on newscast other news now
108 new cases of kovit 19 were confirmed on thursday the country's overall case count is now
48 288. the country's coveted 19 positivity rate now stands at 12.8 percent the country's covid19
death toll is now 936. one additional death was recorded a 79 year old man from santana in the
meantime 181 persons are hospitalized with the respiratory illness 14 are critically ill there
are 22 279 active cases of kovid 19 in jamaica an appeal this afternoon from the caribbean
community of retired persons ccrp to members of parliament to assist the elderly to get inoculated
this follows concerns raised that senior citizens in rural jamaica have little to no access to cov19
vaccines a statement from the ccrp noted that on election day there is concerted effort by both
political parties to transport elderly electors to polling stations it wants party representatives
to make similar arrangements to safeguard the health of the elderly in their constituencies
chairman of the national health fund howard mitchell has confirmed that the government
has purchased additional covid19 vaccines which will be delivered this august we have
paid down on 1.5 million johnson deliveries of which will start in august of this year
but will continue through into the following year we have no other immediate prospects of vaccines
unless and until the united states of america releases vaccines as it has committed to do
in stock i believe they have approximately fifty thousand and another 55 000 are due to arrive
next week and it's now time for a break but please stay with us more local stories when we return
welcome back continuing the news now back to that issue now involving mokafest where the government
is coming under fire after video started to circulate showing particles breaching kovid
19 protocols now entertainment stakeholders are speaking out their anger that the massive
party was able to take place at rick's cafe as you hear in this report from kalisha williams
the local entertainers are blasting the government for showing double standards
packed to capacity patrons having the time of their lives a brazen daylight party at rick's
cafe in negril westmoreland from the pool to the dance floor need a joy ride this boat was on
standby an all-in-one party package except for this sole patron in a mask this could pass for
any large party series before the kovite 19 pandemic the videos have been circulating on
social media since thursday evening however the event was said to be week-long from may 24 to 31.
literally three days prior couldn't leave our own homes couldn't participate in any labor day
project if it was outside of our yard could not go and sit with a friend a family member
we were on for lockdown i was i was in complete shock no at a time when the local entertainment
industry had been shot down by the government for over a year now due to the pandemic entertainers
are irate one year one year of people honestly struggling i personally know
persons in the entertainment industry who have had to close down their business
a perfect example of this is barcode all the way staff all the bartenders that they employ
have had no work for one year we've had you know different dates of you know uh different promises
saying that okay we would be getting some sort of stimulus we'll be having some sort of meeting as
it relates to reopening we've heard announcements we haven't heard anything and then just
to see that um a group of um foreign promoters can come and have access and enjoy things that if
the a jamaican citizen will even attempt to do you get locked up and that's not the only issue these
images of what appeared to be the jamaica tourist board website endorsing the event
even more intriguing hashtag mocha fest has been trending on social media as early as may 1
with persons counting down to what was described as an epic event flyers even show the dates
and a lineup of local artists with tickets costing as much as 350 us dollars so
why didn't the government take action the jamaica tourist board issued a statement
on friday expressing shock and disappointment explaining that it did not endorse the event
and is even more disturbed that its logo was attached to the flyer
but entertainers were more surprised at the jtb statement okay so mocha fest with a 2021 date
because the dates are reset date appeared on the site and has been on that calendar
for over a year okay no problem the jtb also explained that it will be carrying out further
investigations into the event nothing against mokafest nothing against a grill or people
coming to jamaica to enjoy themselves we we our main source of income for jamaica is tourism
and we welcome tourists but there needs to be a level playing field kelisha williams tvj news
concerned this afternoon from business owners in negril westmoreland as they grapple with internet
issues they're calling for the service providers to do better as the poor service puts a dent in
their business javon keyes reports with kovid 19 forcing most transactions digital the internet
has become a critical utility for any business but establishments in negril west milan are
dissatisfied as their internet service provider in their view has left them in a difficult position
internet is a disgrace within the parish especially the past two weeks
you know i had a problem with internet at my home i took floor three months
before they could resolve the problem and i tend to wonder what is it that is so grave that taking
so many months to do it tourism businesses have also been impacted we have had several outages and
the challenges we you know you would expect that from time to time there may be outages but
the challenge we're having is the length of time that it takes for the service to be restored and
you know sometimes it's five days the last time we i experienced it was five days
um it can go to seven days ten days which is you know it's not good for business um as a matter of
fact we have some members at least one member told us in a meeting that they had a guest check out of
their hotel member of parliament for westmill and western moreland wilson says the companies
are doing a great disservice to the parish we have a number of persons who are now depending on the
internet for school and for business purposes and we are now finding out that we do not really have
the infrastructure in place in westmoreland to support this this hike in internet usage
and i'm calling on the our and the consumer fear commission to really look at these arrangements
that they have with these utility companies because it is quite unfair for residents to
be paying the exact same bill each month while they are not getting the service telecoms provider
flow says over 20 instances of cable damage over 2020 into this year have impacted its service in
westmoreland the company says it is working assiduously to address the issues and where
applicable rebates will be applied to the accounts of the affected customers javon keyes tbj news