Good afternoon I'm Giovanni Dennis with the
midday news a special welcome if you're joining us online at onespotmedia.com
the lone suspect in the Khanice Jackson murder investigation has given a caution statement to the
police lawmen say they have gathered substantial evidence in their probe the suspect a 50-year-old
mechanic was known to the 20-year-old accounting clerk deputy superintendent in charge of crime
Fitz bailey refused to say whether the suspect has conf confessed to the crime now on Friday
Miss Jackson's body was found with a rope around the neck in bushes near dike road in Portmore,
St. Catherine now deputy or DSP bail believes the suspect strangled miss jackson to death
the original timeline for cruise ships to return to Jamaica in march has come and gone and no
uncertainty looms over when the sector will rebound tourism minister Ed Bartlett late last
year said cruise ships could return at least to Falmouth in march then in January he placed that
timeline to may and now it's being moved further Oshane masters has more yet another shift in the
timeline as to when cruise ships will visit the island again speaking with our new center late
last year tourism minister Edmond Bartlett was optimistic that cruise shipping would resume in
march this year the timeline was then shifted to may but with what is happening especially in
the united states with the respiratory illness covert 19 the timeline has been changed again
Delano siv wright is a senior strategist in the tourism ministry the cruise line international
association which is essentially an association of all the major cruise lines around the world
had requested of the us cdc uh that they lift the framework for conditional sailing uh so that
cruises can resume in july on a phased basis uh from our understanding the cdc has rejected
this and intends to stick now to their november timeline november 2021 to have a phased reopening
of the cruise industry mr sivright says this is a major setback for jamaica currently
tourism is jamaica's major foreign exchange earner the fact is 2020 was a disastrous year for tourism
here and globally uh certainly in 2019 we had over 1.5 million cruise visitors to jamaica it has an
impact on our economy it's a multi-billion dollar industry that affects the livelihoods of many
jamaicans particularly along the north coast um so it is certainly a setback that the cdc still is
pushing uh to to have a phase reopening november of this year rather than the summer of this year
however at least one major cruise line is seeking to resume cruise operations in the caribbean there
are sensitive discussions happening in governments right now with one particular cruise line one
major cruise line about possibly home porting in jamaica so essentially people fly to jamaica fly
into montego bay then board their cruise ship here and then go on a cruise around the caribbean in
doing so they'll be able to essentially get around the cdc restrictions but of course that's a sense
of discussion that would involve several agencies and ministries here in jamaica on the way forward
machine masters tpg news manchester has been a periodic hotspot for covid 19 cases
over the past few months the number of cases and deaths continue to increase as people continue to
disobey the protocols and object to the vaccine but stakeholders are insisting they will continue
in their effort to educate and assist in fighting the virus hermann greene reports
mandeville manchester has had all experiences with kovit 19
a spike in early january tighter curfew measures in february healthcare workers out sick with kovid
even as hospital awards are full of cases and more recently protest action against the vaccine
but despite the challenges custers of manchester garfield green is leading a team to push back
against the parish outbreak the drive is to find new ways to educate and encourage the public
to give the protocols a chance to work so we have with us today mask sanitizers
some bumper stickers for the taxes that says no mass no seat or no ride and they also have
bumper stickers just for any motorists that they can put on their vehicles encourage persons to
sanitize maintain their social distance and to read the mask we also have with us they
call with hotline numbers for manchester that persons can call and share information with them
or get information regarding kobe 19. the effort is a partnership involving the ministry
of health the jamaica constabulary force and the justices of the peace the group visited kendall
mandeville williams field and alligator pond the team was also informing people about the
vaccination program answering questions and encouraging seniors to get vaccinated
they have to register and our justice of the peace are making themselves available but those over 75
who are some challenge in getting themselves registered if you are aware of any persons
that need help they can contact the office of the customers and we will put arrangements in
place to help those persons get registered and to come out and get vaccinated the health ministry
has turned its attention to manchester recently as in addition to disregard for the protocols
some people have protested in objection to the kovit-19 vaccine the health minister also toured
the parish recently educating persons about vaccines and their role in eradicating diseases
opposition spokesman on health doctor maurice guy has labeled the on and off approach
for lockdowns as counterproductive his criticism is in light of the three weekends of
lockdown announced by prime minister andrew holness on march 21. dr guy says from a public
health perspective the best option would be a complete lockdown whether you have a hard lockdown
which is which would bear more result as opposed to a a on an offload loan um the
the persons who are trying to preserve their livelihoods would suffer um the same way in fact
um we feel that the the prolonging of the agony i spoke about it it relates to not only the numbers
of persons who would get infected but also the dislocations have on their lives and livelihoods
he also argued that the lockdowns should have come earlier however he says no matter the amount
of lockdowns if people are not adhering to the protocols things will not improve the other day of
uh of somebody attempting to jump off a route in spanish stone i'm told it was and and when the the
the forces lord purposes who the responders came everybody who lived in the neighborhood came out
and there was not one person i saw and probably not seen too correctly but i know i am who had
a mask on so in addition to the lord known the reality is that the people we as people
need to adhere to the protocols we need to hear the mask and the mass neuron is very important
he was speaking on the morning agenda on poor 106 this morning
the country has recorded 334 new cases of the coronavirus the number of confirmed
cases now stands at 38 848. kingston and saint andrew recorded most of the new cases with 87
followed by sin catherine with 38 and saint elizabeth with 36.
meanwhile 474 persons remain in hospital 39 are critically ill there are 20
526 active cases in the meantime one more jamaican has died from kovid 19. he's a 72
year old man from kingston and saint andrew this brings the death toll to 587 and it's now time
for a break here on the midday news but please stay with us we'll have much more when you return
welcome back and we're continuing the news and we're going back to an earlier story well our
lead story where the lone suspect in the canis jackson murder investigation has given a caution
statement to the police deputy superintendent of police in charge of crime fitz bailly
refused to say whether the suspect has confessed to the crime he gave a statement a question some
legal thing where he gave a question he gave a statement to the college let me use
that that way then i'm not going to go into the detail of what he said in a statement
i know it has been said that he gave a confession a caution statement is technically a confession
but not necessary a confession of guilt can you say what happens from this point going forward
well the matter continues the investigation continues he will be interviewed by
in the presence of his attorney hopefully today that interview should be ongoing now and then
after the interview we will make a determination based on the assessment of where we go from there
come this weekend more businesses will be able to participate in the e-commerce national delivery
system ends minister without portfolio in the ministry of national security matthew samuda
says the open registration portal should be operational by wednesday the pilot program which
has been running in port morris and catherine since last friday has sparked the interest
of some small business operators particularly those in rural jamaica speaking this morning on
tvj's small jamaica mr samuda says consultation will take place to further expand the program
today to determine how quickly we can get into kingston and santandro said james and certainly
how quickly we can get into rural parachutes you know one of the things that has been um
you know been raised is you know well what about us what about us let's see what's the pilot and
portmore gave us the best opportunity because of the nature of portmore and
of course so to test this system so we are intent on extending um this test as quickly as possible
opposition spokesperson and local government denise daly has welcomed news that changes will
be made to ensure that more homeless people are fed in the upcoming weekend lockdowns
on sunday several people living on the streets of the corporate area anderson catherine claimed they
were abandoned during the lockdown in response to the concern last evening the mayor of spanish town
norman scott said meals were delivered to the homeless centers in specific location however
he says special arrangements will be made so that more people can be fed now i have
no doubt that something was done over the weekend what was done was not enough it was i don't think
it was far-reaching in terms of making sure that if they were fully synthetized and remember it is
the first weekend locked on so i would not want to bash anyone for um last weekend i'm just saying
for this weekend coming i'm happy to hear that the mayor is taking further steps to ensure that
they put the necessary provisions so that we will not have the complaint that we got um we can go on
and for the corporate era mayor of kingston delroy williams says he's engaging more people to help
with feeding the homeless for the next lockdown weekend ms daley is hoping a similar approach will
be made in other parishes a concerted effort has been made for there to be more equitable
distribution of help globally for any other health pandemic which should arise more in this
report a pandemic treaty that's what the world health organization is now seeking to get past
to deal with future health emergencies it comes following the hoarding of covet test material and
vaccines currently as the world continues its fight against the respiratory virus we cannot
do things the way we have done them before and expect a different result we must act boldly
without an internationally coordinated all of government all of society one health approach
to pandemic preparedness and response we remain vulnerable the who director general
dr tedros gabrielesos says the unfair distribution of vaccine and other help to
deal with the virus is more evident in poorer regions hence he says the treaty is needed
some of the key issues of a treaty would include resilience building to pandemics and other global
health emergencies with robust national and global preparedness systems it will also ensure timely
and equitable access to pandemic countermeasures which includes vaccines and funding the treaty
which could be taken forward by the world health assembly would be based on the who constitution
including the principles of health for all and no discrimination or non-discrimination
ultimately of course how such a treaty is developed and what it looks like and whether it's
ratified is a matter for our member states the nations of the world the push for such a treaty
is being spearheaded by president of the european council immunization is a global public good
so we need to be able to develop manufacture and deploy vaccines as quickly as possible
and we also need to ensure universal and equitable access to vaccines medicines
and tests covet 19 has exposed weaknesses and divisions across our societies and now
it's time to come together a swan global community to build a pandemic defense for future generations
that extends far beyond to this crisis in the meantime dr gabriel yeshua says that china and
the united states will still be included in discussions on the treaty despite their state
leaders not signing an open letter agreeing to work towards it ashayne masters tvg news further
afield a world health organization draft report has found that covid19 probably came to people
through an animal and likely started spreading no more than a month or two before it was noticed in
december of 2019 more from the cnn if we let our guard down now we could see a virus getting worse
not better this virus that's caused millions of deaths around the world covet 19 can be
characterized as a pandemic that was march 11 2020 but exactly when did this start how and where the
world health organization has a 400-page report on its probe into the origins of covid19 finding it
likely started spreading no more than a month or two before it was noticed in december 2019
with a cluster of pneumonia-like cases connected to the juanan seafood wholesale market
in wuhan china one author of the report says the most likely path this virus took was from
a bat that infected an animal at a wildlife farm animals that were sold in wet markets like juan on
but the report draws no absolute conclusion about the origin of the outbreak instead reviewing
possibilities and judging them from most likely to least likely but every hypothesis there are four
in all still needs to be more fully investigated all hypotheses are on the table and warrant
complete and further studies there are also recommendations about what the next step should be
which is why the who says this report is really just the beginning and in sports at sports time
sri lanka are 18 for one in response to the west indies 354. uh thiramane is not out on
17 and with him is fernando who is who is yet to score no azari joseph has taken the lone wicket
to fall for the west indies now earlier the west indies were bowled out for 354 inside 112 overs
against sri lanka on day two of the second test this in antigua the caribbean side who began
the day on 287 for seven added a further 67 runs skipper craig brathwaite who began the day on 99
went on to make his ninth test century and was the last wicket to fall he made 126. antiguan rakhim
cornwall also chipped in with 73. suranga lakamala took 4 for 94 for the for the visitors
while dushmantha shamira also chipped in with three for six to nine the first test
ended in a draw now if the caribbean side beats sri lanka then the west indies will
move up to seventh in the test rankings that's the midday news i'm giovanni dennis join us at 7
for primetime news on behalf of the news sports and production teams have a good afternoon you