Good afternoon I'm Giovanni Dennis with the
midday news a special welcome if you're joining us online at onespotmedia.com
the police are probing a double murder in Jones Town, Saint Andrew Monday night the two people
killed have been identified as 35 year old omar jarrett also known as brickback a labourer of penn
street and 24 year old hairdresser janelle thomas the incident happened sometime before 10 o'clock
on penn street according to the police residents heard load explosions and summoned the police
and on arrival of the lawmen they no deceased were seen
in a pool of blood in their one bedroom dwellings the scene was processed by the detectives and the
bodies were moved to the moor pending a post-mortem examination
and in another incident monday five people were shot two fatally this time in arnott gardens
the shooting happened at the corner of collie smith drive and 9th street sometime after 5 pm
these are the latest in a slew of deadly shootings in several inner city communities
since the start of the year a strong police military prisons remain in the area
temporary locations will be created to facilitate people seeking shelter in the corporate area this
in light of the recent attacks on homeless people in three police divisions which resulted in four
fatalities sandy williams reports between sunday night and monday morning six homeless people were
attacked in the corporate area of which four died while the other two sustained serious injuries
the brutal attack has prompted the authorities to consider additional homeless shelters
to provide a refuge for people seeking shelter especially at night may of kingston
delray williams says a transitional center for homeless people in the corporate area
should be in place by the end of the year he said the facility should accommodate 40 to 100 people
we are also in the procurement stage of of the construction of
a transitional facility for them uh on king street it would accommodate where we are looking forward
we're phasing it so are looking at between 40 to 100 persons monetary facilities doctors care
nursing care and psychiatric the timeline we're looking at the this the calendar year
and to complete by the calendar we are pushing to compete by the end of this calendar year
but until then local government minister desmond mckenzie says arrangements are being made to
create temporary locations due to covert 19 restrictions several homeless shelters have
reduced the number of people they accommodate and according to mr mckenzie other shelters are full
to capacity we do practice the social distance in the protocol there because the temperatures
have to be taken they have to sleep you know accordingly so it poses a challenge and we can't
compromise your ears um for anything else what we are going to be looking at there are open areas
outside which are covered which i will speak with the mail to see if we can put some
temporary bedding around there so that those who can't hold inside of of the established area be
placed in those areas you know we have a large constituents of homeless people you know it is
close to 700 of them in the carpet here in the meantime the police have increased patrols in the
areas investigators believe homeless people might be targeted sandy williams tvj news
to other news now police in manchester have increased their presence on the streets following
monday's announcement of a tighter curfew for the next two weeks to control the spread of covid19
one counselor in support of the measure is calling on citizens to comply shamila pulling
has this tvj news follow-up manchester has been under the ministry of health's radar for several
weeks due to an increase in covet-19 cases the health ministry described the parish as
one of two that is of major concern so when the announcement came that the curfew in that parish
will tighten and run from 7 pm to 5 am daily it did not come as a surprise for many in fact
council for the bellefield division mario mitchell had called for stricter measures at the
recent municipal corporation meeting mr mitchell reacted to the announcement made monday afternoon
i'm in full support of calling for the lockdown until february 8th i'm hoping that the citizens
will take our precautions we'll put our protocols in place and limit their gatherings just 10. what
we find out is that manchester is a population we have mostly senior citizens later returning
residents are here so if we allow the kobe 19 university seat in manchester they were going to
have some serious problems to face commuters and business owners and operators also hurried off the
streets of mandeville before 5 pm the mandeville market usually bustling with activities at that
time of the evening was empty by the time the curfew took effect mr mitchell is calling on more
persons to comply with the protocols from what i see people are starting to change as i said i
see about a 90 percent compliance of citizens who are wearing their masks and i'm pleased for that
i've been coming into my every maybe once a week i don't comment money but unless i
have to and our citizens that they can do some of that people can't care for people can ensure that
one person in the house do all the business or the transaction for the entire home but what we
must ensure is that we try to comply as much as possible and i think manchester is a parish for
the people listen we're a loving parish we're a hard working parish and i know the people know
what this means that if we have another lot down so i'm asking them to comply until february to
ensure that we have a little bit of this as much as possible meanwhile the police have outlined
their plans to manage the curfew they're warned that a zero-tolerance approach will be taken
for those found in breach of the disaster risk management act we took a foreground approach to
enforcing the special risk management that has been enforced on the parish so we are
desensitizing persons first with bulletins so that we can get the message across to
as many persons as possible then we took the approach of closing the business space is at
6 pm time recommended to give first it's time to reach home shameless tvj news 141 new confirmed
cases of covet 19 were recorded monday this has pushed the country's total to 15 153 kingston
and saint andrew recorded most of the new cases followed by manchester and clarendon meanwhile
one more person has died from the illness the country's coveted 19 death toll is now 339.
meanwhile the saint elizabeth health department is raising concerns about a spike in covet 19 cases
in the parish recently the health department ordered a church and the training center
in middle quarters closed this after it was revealed that a number of persons in that area
may have contracted the virus a teacher at the training center is also among those affected
and it's now time for a break here on the midday news but please stay
welcome back and we're continuing the news a new study says food insecurity in jamaica has
increased the worsting situation has been linked to the kovid 19 pandemic details in this report
the report from the u.s department of agriculture usda's economic research service revealed that
12.8 percent of the jamaican population is currently food insecure equating to 400 000
people this is double pre-coveted 19 projections and an increase of 100 000 persons over revised
projections made during the pandemic prior to the pandemic the usda released preliminary
projections that 200 000 jamaicans would be food insecure by the end of 2020. by the end of the
year it said the socio-economic impact of the pandemic had caused the actual number of persons
suffering from food insecurity to exceed the pre-pandemic estimates by 100 percent primarily
affecting female-headed households and homes with at least one child the world food program coveted
19 food security and livelihoods impact survey published in september 2020 placed a further light
on the nature of jamaica's food insecurity during the pandemic with 70 percent of respondents
reporting difficulties eating enough during the crisis one in three survey respondents
reported skipping meals or eating less and 1 in 10 reported going a full day without food respondents
indicated a reduction in household food stocks with 20 percent reporting no food at home
the survey confirmed that food in security in jamaica was primarily driven by covet-19
restrictions and economic conditions as opposed to supply-side factors janella precious tvj news the
red berry main road in porous manchester that was blocked by residents on monday has been cleared
residents blocked the road which is connected to the southeast highway no under construction
trucks and other equipment on the site have had to stop working since 8 monday morning residents say
they are frustrated with the lack of attention on dust and noise pollution concerns they've raised
they also might deteriorate because there are so many people come there and say um they're my take
picture of the ocean so and as soon as i'm gone and the vibration turned on the place just a shake
my grandchildren them sick all me when we get up on morning tell me how i run like somebody i beat
me right i mean have a trouble with sinus sorry it does give me sinus we have no water a drum is
over there that they brought to us um to to get um drinking water the drum full of dirty water
bust up bus up burn up burn up and i eat them can i come figure with water for drink dosa me
having business place there so those peer does in the everyday mafia are those don't people
that come them are complaining about those those look much dust pierre doesn't know compensation
ambassador sheila selim on teeth has been appointed as the new permanent secretary
in the ministry of foreign affairs and foreign trade mrs monteith will succeed ambassador marcia
gilbert roberts whose tenure ends today she will take up duties as permanent secretary effective
february 1. foreign affairs minister kamina johnson smith made the announcement earlier
at the ministry's virtual press briefing to say farewell to our permanent secretary ambassador
masia gilbert roberts we commend her unwavering commitment to public service and contribution
to national development as well as her humility professionalism and promotion of excellence as
head of the jamaican foreign service with the changing of the guard ambassador sheila silly
monty who recently returned from a successful tour of duty as ambassador of jamaica to belgium
will assume duty as permanent secretary with effect from the first of february
in news overseas former american president donald trump's second
impeachment case is now in the hands of the u.s senate more from the cnn
a historic march through the halls of the u.s capitol
nearly three weeks after a deadly insurrection took place within its walls nine house impeachment
managers delivering a single article of impeachment to the senate monday night
formally beginning the second impeachment trial against former president donald trump
donald john trump president of the united states is impeached for high crimes and misdemeanors 10
house republicans joined house democrats last week to charge trump with incitement of insurrection
saying he encouraged a violent mob to storm the u.s capitol january 6 in an effort to overturn
the election results we fight like hell and if you don't fight like hell you're not going
to have a country anymore the house also pointing to trump's phone call with georgia's secretary of
state earlier this month asking him to find votes to reverse trump's loss in all this president
trump gravely endangered the security of the united states and its institutions of government
senators will be sworn in as jurors later today and a trial will begin the week of february 8th
the timeline allowing trump's team to prepare and space to confirm president
joe biden's cabinet nominees it's not going to be easy to manage all these things at once
but it's absolutely imperative biden telling cnn he's doubtful there are
enough republicans willing to convict trump but he also believes the impeachment trial has to happen
to news and sports dream deferred but not denied despite a 2017 accident that derailed his olympic
dream to compete against able-bodied athletes marlo rodman has switched focus to the paralympic
games looking for a chance to become the first paracyclist to represent jamaica at the games
denise walters has his story marla rodman saw his dreams of competing in the tokyo olympics vanish
after losing function in his left arm however after encouragement from dr wayne palmer
the president of the jamaica cycling federation rodman took a paracyclin this time with an eye
towards the paralympics dr palmer says rodman was heading in the right direction
until kovite 19 hit however with the pandemic halting all cycling events including paracycling
mr rodman was unable to end the necessary qualifying events we are still hoping that
some of these qualifying events will eventually be held and give him a second opportunity dr palmer
added that there are also other factors that are presenting a challenge the approval of a covet
protocol to allow training at the national stadium in addition to the ability to travel
to other countries to participate in qualifying events and a necessary quarantine that may
in between events not daunted rodman who is doing physiotherapy on his left arm is still working out
on his own there are some days i will go into the mountains like i'll ride from here to go to
plantation heights and drop because in bhagavata and then walk to yorktown and come back home
sometimes i'll just stay on the flat because that helps to build good cadence when you stay
on the flat um strap this arm to the bike try to tense the shoulder as much as possible to get some
kind of use from this arm and do the workouts he admits to a never give up attitude reminiscing on
that mindset at the 2015 caribbean championships last slap the road away and leave me and i'm
like okay you just have to circle for third place because two guys rolled away with me i'm like no
went up the hill went up the hill and i saw them in the distance and start riding 400
meter from the finish outside and i'm like whoa my head is so big my head is and i just
sat on a bicycle i was feeling some cramps and just better just give it you know 100 to finish
and i won and since then it just keeps getting better and better also certified as a paracycling
coach the 32 year old rodman has words of encouragement for persons going through a tough
time i would say to other athletes out there don't give up on the dream you know don't give up on a
dream no matter what the circumstances is and just keep pushing and putting the best foot forward
rodman will have to compete in a classifier event to be classified by cycling's governing body uci
denise walters for tvj sports a story of shared grit and determination and that's
how we end the midday news i'm giovanni dennis join us at 7 for primetime news