Excerpt from Jamaica Observer column published Monday, February 22, 2021

By: Jean Lowrie-Chin

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Herd immunity is the only way out of Jamaica’s economic slump, and so the private sector has pledged to partner with the Government to get us back on track. At last Friday’s press briefing, Economic Programme Oversight Committee (EPOC) Chairman Keith Duncan said that private sector bodies had signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to this effect with the Ministry of Health and Wellness.

“Notably,” he added, “private sector bodies and entities have indicated their willingness to fund the vaccination of their employees and dependents and to look at contributing to vaccinating the at-risk population.”

COVID-19 has left us with a 65.2 per cent downturn in tourism and restaurant businesses. However, Duncan noted two “bright spots” — agriculture, forestry and fishing up by 2.5 per cent and construction up by seven per cent. Remittances have also increased by some 30 per cent. I have never seen so much construction activity and enthusiasm for real estate. One colleague opined that people are seeing this as a safe way to protect their assets.

We wait anxiously for the COVID-19 vaccine, concerned that our Caribbean neighbours seem to have stolen the march on us. We are puzzled, because our health ministry was early with prevention promotion, contact tracing, quarantining of communities, and informative press briefings. Our friends in the US were impressed with the national consensus on the importance of mask-wearing, when there were so many mixed messages around it in that country. The reporting website created for travellers was thought to be innovative, but now there are questions about the security of the information.

This pandemic is the most challenging situation that Jamaica has ever faced, but as we have done in other disastrous situations, we will recover and be stronger from the hard lessons we are learning.