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COVID-19 pandemic in Jamaica

The COVID-19 pandemic was confirmed in Jamaica on 10 March 2020. This was during the 2019–2020 dengue fever epidemic that affected Latin America and the Caribbean.

COVID-19 pandemic in Jamaica

COVID-19

SARS-CoV-2

Jamaica

Wuhan, Hubei, China
(global pandemic)

Kingston, Jamaica

10 March 2020
(4 years, 1 month, 1 week and 6 days)

156,806[1]

150,532[2]

3,597[1]

On 11 January 2022, Jamaica overtook China in terms of the number of confirmed cases.

Background[edit]

The COVID-19 pandemic in Jamaica is part of an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), an infectious disease caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). On 12 January, the World Health Organization (WHO) confirmed that a novel coronavirus was the cause of a respiratory illness in a cluster of people in Wuhan City, Hubei Province, China, who had initially come to the attention of the WHO on 31 December 2019.[3][4] Unlike SARS outbreak of 2003, the case fatality ratio for COVID-19 [5][6] has been much lower, but the transmission has been significantly greater, with a significant total death toll.[7][5]

On 12 March: the closing of all primary and secondary schools for fourteen days.

[29]

On 13 March: the invocation of the special powers under the Disaster Risk Management Act, the Emergency Powers Act and the Public Health Act to combat further spread of COVID-19. The Prime Minister also announced that the country would be seeking 100 Cuban nurses and recruiting retired medical professionals to help with the pandemic response.[31]

[30]

On 17 March: the imposition of directives to non-essential workers.[32]

remote work

[33]

stay-at-home order

On 25 March: the institution of the multi-billion dollar COVID-19 Allocation of Resources for Employees (CARE) Programme which aims to provided financial assistance to workers and business affected by the pandemic. The programme became operational on 9 April.

[39]

On 30 March: the imposition of an island-wide curfew, from 1 April to 8 April.

[40]