good afternoon I'm Bosch and brown with the midday news a special welcome if
you're watching on one spot Mediacom the latest coronavirus statistics in the
caribbean region shows that confirmed kovat 19 cases are spiraling up the
dominican republic recording the highest number of confirmed cases countries in
the South and Central American regions are also seeing an increase in cases
according to the John Hopkins coronavirus Resources Center effective
April 1 the dominican republic recorded 1109 confirmed cases Colombia has 906
cases Costa Rica has 347 cases Cuba and on--he Cuba and Honduras of more than
150 cases while Trinidad and Tobago has 18 nine cases Jamaica
and Guatemala both recorded 39 cases are the countries in the region with
confirmed Ovid 19 cases are Barbados with 34 Haiti with 16 Bahamas with 15
st. Lucia with 13 Guyana with 12 and Dominica with 11 cases countries
recording fewer than 10 confirmed cases of Cove in nineteen includes Suriname
Grenada Antigua and Barbuda and st. Vincent and the Grenadines and Trinidad
and Tobago reported its fifth death from kovat 19 this morning the latest
casualty is an elderly man with a pre-existing medical condition
no as I mentioned earlier on the twin island Republic is reporting 18 9
positive cases while one person has since recovered and has been discharged
of the total number of positive cases 49 came from a group of nationals who
recently returned from a cruise director of the road safety unit Knut here is
expressing concern regarding the number of fatalities in the country despite the
crisis of the kovat 19 here's Prince more with the details since the
government imposed certain restrictions in a bid to contain the spread of kovat
19 in the country vehicular traffic has been reduced significantly
but according to director of the road safety
unit cannot hear road fatalities are still high the month of March 25 persons
are being seen so far in 30 days that is that is unacceptable
a lot of these that are blatant disobedience in discipline and
restlessness none of these deaths make any sense whatsoever it's a matter of
poor choices many would have thought that with less persons using the road
network for the month of March due to the closure of schools and with some
persons working from home the numbers would be way less in total 107 persons
have been killed in road crashes since the start of the year that six less when
compared to the corresponding period last year many persons not end up in
boneyard is 48 times because they have made a deliberate and third even selfish
decision to drive recklessly without cheering for their family members and
their loved one in the meantime mr. here August that with resources stretched
thin due to the kovat 19 fight drivers ought to be more responsible you wash
your hands and keep your home screen I mean sure that you you have your
senator as well as you have a written a road network drive for the family drive
with here drive for your fellow this means Oh deal the one time selfishness
is not going to work it doesn't it doesn't even help you government area
anywhere all it does it has led to a hundred and seven persons died Network
Prince more TVJ News PNP spokesman on Finance mark Golding says the country
should consider tapping multilaterals for loans if the kovat 19 induced
economic fallout is more than can be managed with local resources finance
minister dr. Nigel Clark has already outlined a 10 billion
a spending package but mr. Golding says it may not be enough given that
forecasts suggest the kovat 19 followed could wipe out more than 6% of GDP this
year he didn't say how much more money should be spent to keep the economy on
track during the pandemic and to help it recover quickly
he said the technocrats should make that assessment but there's no doubt that
we're going to have a very severe economic impact from this and my point
is we need to find the resources and spend what needs to be spent to protect
population so that when the health crisis abates which we hope will happen
in the near future though we don't know how long it will take the economy is in
a position to resume a positive pathway forward the financing of it will be a
combination of different measures some may be deferred capital expenditure in
the engineer in the near term some may be additional borrowing we've been
bringing our debt to GDP ratio from 147 percent to 90 over the last seven years
if we were to take on a little debt at this point in time to ride us through
that crisis I think that would be a sound investment to make among other
things mr. Golding has called for a $50,000 transfer to families on path and
a 15 thousand dollar grant for pensioners in addition to that mr.
Golding has called for the support offered it to farmers small businesses
and the informal sector to be expanded former chief medical officer and now PNP
candidate for the East Central's and Catherine c2 dr. Winston Delahaye is
appealing to jamaicans to start wearing masks to protect themselves against the
new coronavirus disease the appeal was made as news emerged that the virus can
last for hours in the air even though the World Health Organization w-h-o
insists that it is unnecessary for people to wear masks unless they are
sick dr. Delahaye himself in the past also discouraged the wearing of masks in
line with whu-oh guidelines
my position I've been following like you the media the happenings in different
countries Spain Italy the Czech Republic friends in these spaces were vindicated
they are very clear they have been for some time I am no clear as of last
evening and in fact have my own mask which I know recommending that all
persons where possible all persons wear masks it doesn't matter the kind of mask
I'm not talking about n95 or surgical masks it's any mask that can offer
protection of any form of droplet coming on to you or especially if you are ill
you are coughing and leading to these droplets we're not talking about micro
droplets staying in the air for up to six eight hours that's serious and that
can be prevented at this time any form of prevention that can be had and if
masks will do even and I author of that then we must ensure that we are
executing what will help as Jamaica continues to see an increase in the
number of covert 19 cases this afternoon an educator in Manchester is urging the
government to do more tests and is even suggesting a low in persons who can
afford it to pay Ian Williams who teaches that the Winston Jones high
school says the move is important in giving a true picture of Jamaica's
outbreak he adds that it would also be in line with the WH OHS recommendation
for countries with coronavirus cases
some encouraging the government whatever they need to do to ensure that they step
up under that the level of testing that they are doing even if it has to be a
situation where persons who can afford to pay for the testing to be done and no
persons will be willing to do that to ease their mind you know rather than to
just depend on those testing that are done by the government and before we go
to the break in our story relating to these statistics in the Caribbean region
we had mentioned that a Jamaican Guatemala both recorded 39 cases that is
in fact 38 cases so Jamaica and Guatemala recorded 38 cases of the
corona virus we now take a break on the News Weaver live right back welcome back
continuing the news now the Jamaica urban transit company J UTC has reverted
to normal operating hours following news that it's drivers are among those
exempted from the curfew order the curfew takes effect at 8:00 p.m. tonight
onto 6:00 a.m. this will continue for seven days J UTC managing director Paul
Abrams had earlier said most routes would cease operating at five o'clock
this afternoon and roll out no later than 8:00 a.m. daily for the duration of
the curfew in a follow-up interview with our News Center
mr. Abrams said the operations team was in meetings to decide on the way forward
operations remain in full service and during the course of the day if changes
are needed we will eventually so it's being reported that workers that area
FEM have been locked out from its scent and compound as a meeting is underway at
the Ministry of flavor between the National worker's union and management
employees at the st. Anne based radio station walked off the job yesterday
evening to protest the manner in which the company was carrying out layoffs
chief union delegate robert williams spoke with our correspondent members of
staff who are rusted who were are unable to take over the issue for example Elise
Kelly's in the student know she is been she's been denied access to use to run
our program lady Rene came this morning for her ship this same thing happened
she was denied entry to the studio and no more workers are out here no unable
to get into this petition because they have put security at the gate with a
list of staff members who should not who should be denied entry there was outrage
in yellow said Thomas this morning where residents of Catholic Lane are
experiencing disruptions in the regular water supply the residents have been
appealing to the National Water Commission and double AC to restore the
commodity especially during the a virus outbreak after two months of
suffering without water and several attempts to have water fully restored
residents of Gallas are upset they say after several pleas
water was dropped into the community but it is inadequate they are again
appealing to the NWC to either restore water or provide when you are delivered
to this is service delivery yeah when you hug them say you need to talk to
your counselor they give me a number to call the
counselor a card with no response we used to get the water and cattle a clean
unlike every two deer they will give it to us and we'll knock it off and give
another district every two dia well that was fine with everybody about to mourn
over going at Tremont when I get no water at all not at all the chopper come
once in Abuja but the major concern among residents is
their inability to protect themselves from kovat 19 yes you son watch my
grandson and tell me you know all along ultimata a PME of the fear forget the
quwata for drink i makeu was at our watchman on every two or three second
jo-wilfried or I will use wash with an with and despite the absence of water
residents say they are still and receiving bills I'm the next one I won't
tell it this week and I'm not peeing it because I'm not getting any water and
water is what we need because of this disease burner on what we suppose the
door and I walked the prime minister was put on in foot I step on it and Michael
get water immediately TVJ News contacted a representative of the end of Lisi in
mind Bay who said the water disruption is due to the ongoing drought the end of
a sea revealed that at pants improve the communities water supply are
at an advanced stage a booster pump is being installed to pump water to a
storage tank above the community which will provide water machine masters TVJ
news and here now is a preview of what's coming up in this evenings health report
in the next edition of the health reports we look at exercise during the
kovat 19 pandemic it's important to exercise because we have the tendency to
are complacent to eat whatever we want don't pay attention to exercising and
taking care for ourselves that's the Health Report this evening in
primetime news I do know for today's healthy living tip exercise activities
will help you control your weight reduce your risk of heart diseases help your
body manage blood sugar and insulin levels help you quit smoking and help
keep your thinking learning and judgment skills sharp as you age
and it's now time for sports world football's governing body FIFA has
approved four bids for the hosting of the 2023 Women's World Cup the beds are
from Brazil Colombia Japan and a joint bid from Australia and New Zealand FIFA
will announce in June which one of the four bids is successful to host the next
World Cup qualifications for the women for the 2023 Women's World Cup is
expected to kick off in 2021 Jamaica made their debut at the FIFA Women's
World Cup last year in France meanwhile the United States expressed an interest
in hosting the 2027 edition of the tournament if successful it would see
the u.s. hosting the women's event just a year after co-hosting the 2026 men's
tournament and one year before Los Angeles hosts the 2028 Summer Olympics
and that's the midday news on Vashon brown join us at 7:00 for prime time
news package on behalf of the new sports and production teams have a good
afternoon