good afternoon of ashen brown with the midday news a special welcome if you're
watching on one spot Mediacom Prime Minister Andrew Holness says he met
yesterday with the local government Minister Desmond Mackenzie to discuss
concerns about the senton Municipal Corporation yesterday the national
integrity action ni a called for the immediate resignation of chairman of the
Municipal Corporation Mayor Michael Bell Navis the anti-corruption watchdog made
the call in light of a Sunday Gleaner investigative report which revealed that
the mayor is a director of a private company that captured government land
and constructed a building in violation of the Building Act mr. Holness says he
has not yet received the full briefed on the matter at the cooperation from the
local government Minister I met with Minister Mackenzie this
afternoon we had a brief discussion he is to give me some more information on
it and I'm always concerned about any allegations of impropriety and
corruption my my job is to brief myself properly bring the people in who are the
center of any accusation to get full knowledge and then once I'm satisfied
that there is something there that requires action then you would know by
my past track record that I do act on these matters as of July 1 visitors to
Jamaica from high-risk countries will be required to upload a valid polymerase
chain reaction PCR test result on the visitor to make a website the results
should be no more than seven days old from their expected arrival dates over
as of July 10 non-residents will be required to present those test results
upon arrival to the island Prime Minister Andrew Holness made that
announcement while speaking at a press conference yesterday
now approval for travel to Jamaica on the visit Jamaica website will be
subject to the upload of this valid PCR test as of July 10 persons visiting
Jamaica that is a non-resident visiting Jamaica from the declared high-risk
areas will be required to present their PCR test so just let me just walk that
through a little bit so yes we are requiring pre testing mr. Hall has said
while the test results will determine approval for entry a negative result is
not a guarantee for entry that test will be used to determine approval for entry
in to Jamaica and we have put it in that language but obviously if you upload a
test that is negative that doesn't mean you will be automatically approved we
still look at other things but it is highly likely approved now the high risk
states include Florida New York Arizona and Texas meanwhile the Jamaica hotel
and tourist Association JH da wants further details on the pre testing
requirement for non-residents from certain destinations seeking to enter
Jamaica as of July 10 president of the Jamaica hotel and tourist Association
Omar Robinson says while he supports the pre testing requirement there is a need
for further clarification he is questioning how the government will deal
with visitors who have connecting flights through one of the high-risk
estates while we support pre testing we need further clarification as this
requirement will now only be done for persons traveling from high-risk States
some questions to be answered you know such as how do we discern or validate
which from which state visitors are from when they have a connecting flight
through one of those named States what will happen to visitors traveling
between July 1 to 9 should there be additional states or
should it be the entire US so the details need to be worked out as this is
causing some confusion already and it clearly needs to be sorted out so that
we can explain to our travel partners the Minister of Health is monitoring
cases in which patients were recovered from Ovid 19 ended up with complications
outside of the respiratory system now some worship
researchers say the virus may attack other systems like the cardiovascular
system leading to stroke and heart attack in patients thought to have
recovered chief medical officer dr. Jacqueline Bisset McKenzie yesterday
revealed that she's aware of some case reports in Jamaica what we have done is
that from the Ministry of Health perspective we have been following up
for cases that have been discharged or discharged protocol involve a seven-day
test and interview and then a 14-day test and interview so we will be looking
how we extend that period over time to see if we require to have three months
review six months reviews for these for critically ill persons will also be
tested to determine if their ailments are related to cope in nineteen all
persons that come into hospitals that have these kind of illnesses we are
asking for these persons to be tested even if it is not thought to be cool bit
related but any persons that are going into our ICUs
any persons that are critically ill persons with depressed consciousness
strokes serious illnesses we're requiring a test to see if there are any
issues related to coding as we develop the capacity to do antibody testing at
the National Public Health lab we will also be accompanying that PCR test with
an antibody test as well now the prime minister says there are plans to reopen
the entertainment sector mr. Holness says he's heard the appeals from
industry stakeholders he says the matter will be discussed on
Friday at The Cove in nineteen management meeting he adds that the
government will take a close look at the proposals for the safe reopening of the
sector we pay close attention to the entertainment industry our friends in
the entertainment industry we wanted to get you back up and running
what we want to do it safely so we will start the examination of that on Friday
I am almost certain that the economic recovery task force would have spent
some time looking at some of the protocols as well so significant work
would have been been done in some areas of entertainment so we'll put all of
that together and we should now be in a position within the month of July to see
how best we can reopen some of the entertainment venues and we take a break
now on the midday news more stories when we return please stay with us
welcome back continuing the news now where are the zones of special
operations that question from an opposition senator as he refused to
support any further extension to the states of emergency SOS Andrea Chism
picks up that story Prime Minister Andrew Holness at the JLP
s annual meeting in November 2019 promising about seven more doses this
year not just for but possibly an additional three communities so we are
moving very quickly to cover all those 20 communities that we have identified
and have them under zones of special operations six months into the new year
and questions from opposition senator Damion Crawford said on multiple
occasions that he would at least can we get the two previously declared
resources are in Denham Town West Kingston and Mount Salem st. James in
responding to mr. Crawford leader of government business in the Senate
kameena Johnson Smith reiterated that an international cooperation agreement
valuing 20 million euros has been signed with the European Union to implement
social aspects of zoo so they take money it takes cash to care yes and those
resources have to be put in place in the meantime another argument to support the
use of SOS to fight crime 9s ohi's are currently in place set to expire on July
25 the fact that the gross and horrendous attack against or police in
Horizon Park took place in a state of emergency the fact that a high
percentage orders that have occurred in this year
have taken place within state of emergency they are not they don't
support an argument that the state of emergency is failing they support an
argument as to why the state of emergency are needed senator Crawford
argued that the government should focus on systemic issues that lead to crime
for example unemployment he adds that SOS have crippled businesses including
those in the entertainment sector and again questioned their constitutionality
tbj News meanwhile mr. Crawford is echoing a call from the Police
Federation for a monument in honor police officers killed he also wants the
families of slain police personnel to be compensated in a timely manner now when
a 26-0 will die and family only receive 14 million policemen duty that to this
day
don't receive money
competence to privatize the life insurance farmers in Sint Elizabeth are
said to benefit from a 1.5 million dollar agricultural investment
representatives from the central social development initiative and the rural
agricultural development authority Rada made the donation in Santa Cruz on
Thursday more in this report in an effort to improve the agricultural
production in Saint Elizabeth some 60 farmers were given red peas and peanuts
to plant at the raddest Santa Cruz office rodders parish manager
Nathan Samuels said the farmers were trained in several best practices in
planting the crops and managing director of the social Jamaica development
initiative Damon young told TVJ news that the program will expose farmers to
modern agricultural technology mr. young said there is a strong interest in the
production of peanuts and red peas in fact we have a very keen interest and we
believe that these should not be a problem that we have to be importing
from other countries right here in Jamaica and in Saint Elizabeth in
particular we have enough acreages
farmers from amorous and giddy halt were the focus of the training exercise our
news team spoke with some of the farmers
mr. young said he's looking forward to seeing the farmers being able to supply
the Jamaican market so we are expecting that within the next three months we
will be able to see the farmers producing after being supplied with some
of this startup today within three prints more TVJ news 8 persons including
a one-year-old were hospitalized when I tell you to Noah crashed in San Thomas
on Monday it supported that about 4:30 p.m. the driver of a Toyota Noah motor
car was traveling along the grand span main road while overtaking a line of
traffic she encountered another vehicle which was travelling in the opposite
direction the driver then lost control of the vehicle which hit an embankment
then overturned the passengers were rushed to the Princess Margaret Hospital
there were no fatalities news overseas no the European Union is beginning to
open its borders but not to Americans the EU published its list of countries
allowed to travel the EU block as restrictions are lifted more from the
CNN this list came out really just a couple of minutes ago so it's pretty hot
of the printing presses if you will and there are indeed 15 nations on that list
where the EU deems that it's safe to allow citizens from those countries back
into the European Union some interesting things on that list for instance China
is on the list so Chinese will be allowed to come back to the European
Union but the EU is saying that there needs to be reciprocity that China also
needs to allow EU citizens or citizens from EU countries back into China as
well and then we get to the whole complex of the united states of course
has been talked about a lot over the past couple of years the United States
did not make the list but then if you look at the list very carefully there
are a lot of countries on that list who are significantly less wealthy than the
US and whose health care systems also are a lot less well-funded than that in
the US for instance Algeria Georgia Montenegro Morocco Tunisia Rwanda and
Serbia have all made the list because they essentially are deemed by the
European Union tab being a go to dealing better with the corona virus pandemic to
being more efficient at beating back the corona virus pandemic then the United
States panelist ports there is optimism that this season schoolboy football
season will go ahead with lingering thoughts of insufficient resources could
jeopardize the pride and joy of high school footballers for vice president of
the National parent Teachers Association Stuart Jacobs there's to be major
assurances given by Issa for parents to be satisfied and we're going to stick to
it okay maybe expensive that our kids can be tested but the officials and the
coaches and managers what we're going to be in constant contact with these kids
are question because we're talking about a pandemic flu or fever it kills you
professor at the University of the West Indies Rachel Irving agrees I don't from
other places what is done is it feasible what is infection rate can protect as
best as possible for youngsters and if you we can't answer those questions then
I think it should be scrapped for no schools have been granted the permission
to start training as of July 1 but for Holy Trinity coach Devon Anderson it's
not smooth sailing we put it on tuna fishing and stuff like that so we're
kinda in a limbo right now he says a affected to meet today with the general
principle body to discuss the way forward and that's the midday news on
Vashon brown join us at 7:00 for prime time news package on behalf of the news
sports and production teams have a wonderful afternoon