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I must admit — the thought of traveling internationally during a pandemic initially had me extremely anxious. With COVID cases beginning to spike back up, I often considered delaying my […]
The post What It's Really Like To Travel To Jamaica Right Now appeared first on Essence.
South Africa is one of the hardest-hit countries in Africa with over 740,000 infections.
The country recorded 60 more virus-related deaths on Wednesday, bringing the death toll to 20,011.
MONTEGO BAY, St James — Pastor of the King's Seventh-day Adventist Church in Mount Salem, Charles Brevitt, yesterday warned members of his congregation to “cease and desist” from playing dominoes on the compound, arguing that if the Government is not allowing it to be played in bars, then members must not play the game on church premises.
You will know that the Government has decided to open bars, but in opening bars, the Government has put a regulation in place which is that no domino game should be played in the bar, outside of the bar, or on the premises where the bar is operated.
The Government has put that regulation in place,” Pastor Brevitt told congregants at the start of yesterday's service.
While I can't stop members of this church and their friends from playing dominoes, don't play on the [church] compound,” Pastor Brevitt urged.
I am not saying that playing domino is wrong, but I am saying that the Government has put regulations in place so that we can keep our services, and we are not going to break those regulations.”
WESTERN BUREAU: Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett has announced plans for a comprehensive health insurance and repatriation programme for visitors to the island, which will be introduced on November 1. Speaking at the reopening of the Zoetry resort...
WESTERN BUREAU: As Jamaicans observe Breast Cancer Awareness Month, renowned medical practitioner Dr Delroy Fray has warned that while a vegetarian, low-fat diet is good for cancer prevention, it should not be relied on as a cancer treatment by...
Messam, who is mayor of the city of Miramar in South Florida, said once back home he directed city managers to plan for a devastating pandemic.
He credits that prompt action for COVID-19 not ravaging Miramar, Broward County's fourth-largest city with a population of 144,000.
When Messam spoke to the Observer two weeks ago, almost 400 people in Miramar had tested positive for COVID-19, making it the third-highest rate for Broward County.
While no COVID-19 deaths have been recorded in Miramar, the city has not escaped the economic downturn sweeping the US.
A star football player at Florida State University, Messam began his public career in 2011 as a Miramar City commissioner.
Western Bureau: The Jamaica Railway Corporation (JRC) is describing recent criticisms from the St James Health Department in regard to its alleged failure to address several long-standing, health-related concerns at the People’s Arcade, in Montego...
More than 500 bars in western Jamaica are set to be resuscitated from the COVID-19 slump in fortunes as Campari’s J. Wray and Nephew (JWN) pumps $35 million into a ‘Restart Pack’ initiative aimed at having an islandwide impact.
The initiative is geared at assisting 2,000 bar owners nationwide with the restocking and the reopening of their businesses, months after they were locked down as a result of measures to reduce exposure to coronavirus.
“The initiative is intended to assist in the recovery of small retail businesses and the Jamaican economy in general,” JWN’s commercial director for Jamaica & the Caribbean, Michelle Brown-Sinclair, told The Gleaner, hours after her team handed over boxes of products to bar owners in the county of Cornwall.
Another bar owner, Paul Graham, operator of Bonafide, Lawrence Lane, Montego Bay, whose relationship with the rum company spans 40 years, said that he was hit hard when he was forced to shutter his business.
The organisation’s president, Keith Duncan, described the move as “a considerable effort by JWN to support bar owners and an example of business partnership for economic recovery”.
South Africa will soon open the door to more international tourists in the next few days, as the government prepare to shorten the 'banned travel list'.
Johannesburg mayor Geoff Makhubo has gone into self-isolation after a staffer in his office tested positive for Covid-19 on Monday.
According to a statement by mayoral spokesperson Mlimandlela Ndamase, the staff member in the mayor's office tested positive for the virus following a trip to the Western Cape for a funeral last week.
However, as a precautionary measure, the mayor has today undergone another Covid-19 test and has decided to place himself under self-isolation until the results are known,\" Ndamase said.
\"The entire staff complement in the executive mayor's office has also, as a precaution, undergone tests to determine their Covid-19 status.\"
READ | Lockdown: Joburg mayor heartened by recovery rate, urges residents to keep adhering to rules
Ndamase added that employees in the mayor's office will be operating from isolated sites as prescribed by the protocols in place to prevent the spread of Covid-19.
Riverside had tested more than 104,700 residents—9,590 of those were confirmed positive for the virus, while testing in San Bernardino County is progressing much slower, through June 9, the county had only tested 6,953 individuals with 3,931 testing positive.
The disparity in the number of residents being tested makes it clear much still needs to be done as it relates to encouraging inland area residents to take the COVID-19 test, particularly in San Bernardino County.
David Wert, spokesperson for San Bernardino County was asked about the county’s poor performance regarding testing as compared to Riverside County.
Black Voice News Publisher and community leader Paulette Brown-Hinds recently tested for COVID-19 to help raise awareness regarding the importance of testing as well as to demonstrate how quick and easy the process can be.
For a list of test sites in Riverside County visit www.rivcoph.org/; for test sites in San Bernardino County visit Photo: Black Voice News Publisher Paulette Brown-Hinds being tested at drive-through test center in Riverside County.
Tanzanian destinations out of bounds to travellers from Kenya as dispute over access continues to simmer.
[SAnews.gov.za] President Cyril Ramaphosa is determined to see every part of the economy return to full operation as government works towards recovery from the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
(Jamaica Observer) After a nine-month hiatus from the Panama/Jamaica airspace due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Panamanian-owned Copa Airlines soared to the skies on Monday (December 7), at almost full capacity, to regain its slot at Sangster International Airport (SIA) in Montego Bay.
The article Copa Airlines returns to Jamaica after nine-month break appeared first on Stabroek News.
More than 80 years ago, postal service worker and travel writer Victor Hugo Green had the foresight to create The Negro Motorist Green Book, a travel guide that was initially the go-to source for black American travelers.
As advertised in the Green Book from 1949 to 1957, this new liaison was not only meant to encourage African-Americans to travel abroad, but also to provide an underserved community with travel logistics, from applying for passports and visas to booking travel via airline, railroad, and at the time, steamship.
In 1954, Freddye Henderson, who later founded Henderson Travel Service, the nation’s first African-American-owned travel agency, took a group of black female fashion designers to Europe.
Their decision to focus on trip planning and tours to Africa would not only become a revenue generator for the company, but it would also serve an underserved travel market and forge valuable connections in the black community.
Celebrating 65 years in the travel business this year, Henderson Travel Service lives on through Freddye and Jacob’s daughter, as she and the agency continue to provide travelers with unique experiences in Africa.
With the vast majority of the south coast haven’s business generated from overseas arrivals, small hotels and guest houses in that section of St Elizabeth are now reeling from the fallout in bookings.
Kory South, general manager of the 14-room Sunset Resort and Villas overlooking the Caribbean Sea, said that an inward focus is the last gasp to keep his small hotel afloat.
One of the two more popular small hotels in the area, Sunset Resort and Villa attracts only 15 per cent local occupancy, with the majority of guests from the United States, and Canada, and Europe.
“Now we are expanding the place somewhat, adding a few more rooms, and will be hoping our locals will come through some marketing to coincide with the local bird season and the Calabash International Literary Festival in September,” said South.
The local market is a big part of the diet of the popular Jakes Hotel, says owner Jason Henzell, who shuttered the property on March 23, but remained “partially” open for bookings heading into the Labour Day weekend.
[Monitor] Ugandan companies involved in the sourcing of external employment for migrant workers abroad are to resume business after government Monday announced that it had relaxed the Coronavirus restrictions.
Maurice Tomlinson is one of the most well-known gay rights activists in the world. He is an attorney-at-law, law lecturer, journalist, and HIV/AIDS and LGBTI (Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgendered Intersexual) activist in Jamaica and the Caribbean.
Tomlinson was born on April 9, 1971 in Montego Bay, St. James, Jamaica to George Cornel Tomlinson and Carmen Victoria Campbell Tomlinson. He has two brothers, Kurt and Rhoan. Tomlinson’s education includes studies at The University of the West Indies (2003), Norman Manley Law School in Jamaica (2005), University of Turin Law School in Italy (2006), and Mona School of Business (2007). Friends provided the catalyst for his interest in social justice. Before finishing his law degree, he worked as a flight attendant for Air Jamaica. In this period, he became aware that AIDS affected everyone and could impact anybody. Studying law exposed him to the idea of human rights and the possibility to change discriminatory laws and practices.
In 2009, Tomlinson became legal advisor of marginalized groups for the well-known, respected, international advocacy organization, AIDS-Free World. One area of his advocacy education is the link between Jamaica’s anti-gay laws and the spread of HIV. In his country, 32% of gay men have HIV compared to 1.6% in the general population. AIDS-Free World works in partnership with JFLAG (Jamaica Forum of Lesbians, All-Sexuals, and Gays), Representatives of Jamaicans for Justice, Families Against State Terrorism, and other human rights allies.
For two years, Tomlinson collected victim reports as part of a legal challenge against his nation. Since the new Jamaican Charter of Fundamental Rights and Freedoms does not allow domestic challenges, his team engaged in an unprecedented legal challenge to Jamaica’s anti-sodomy laws. Their complaint filed with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) in 2011 became the first regional challenge in the world of an AIDS-related issue. While IACHR can only release a recommendation to the Jamaican
Past studies conducted in Kenya found that truck drivers face a higher risk of contracting and spreading viruses, like HIV/Aids, because they are a highly mobile vulnerable group that traverses the country and often spends nights stopped in temporary locations, where exposure is high and testing and protection use is low.
The decision by the Kenyan government comes as Uganda is exploring the option of having trucks entering the country stopped at the border and then picked up and driven by Ugandan drivers to their destinations or to the next border point.
On May 17, the Ugandan newspaper Daily Monitor reported that 18 Kenyans were among 37 truck drivers that had tested positive for the virus in Uganda after crossing into the country.
East African countries have come up with new guidelines to be used by truck drivers to curtail the spread of Covid-19 along the transport corridors.
Through the director of public health, Dr Francis Kuria, the guidelines will be used by the truck drivers along the transport corridors between Mombasa and neighbouring countries, including Tanzania.
Dubai-based Emirates has announced it will cover a portion of medical, quarantine or funeral expenses if passengers get infected.
Q: Can I vote in person at the US Embassy or at the US Consular Agency on election day?A: No. Neither the US Embassy nor the US Consular Agency are polling places. You must register to vote and request an absentee ballot to vote from Jamaica. Visit FVAP.gov to register to vote, request a ballot, and more.Q: I am a US citizen and currently live in Jamaica. Can I vote in the upcoming November 2020 election?
The accuracy of testing for the deadly COVID-19 virus by officials in Sierra Leone, has been in the spotlight since confirmation of the first group of cases two months ago.
Spokesperson for the National Covid-19 Emergency Response Center (NACOVERC) – Mr Solomon Jamiru gave this statement in defence of the government’s testing protocol:
“From 284 samples obtained, and 270 analysed, we announced 86 positive cases at our 11am press update today.
But as the debate continues about the effectiveness of the testing done by officials in Sierra Leone, the head of the National Response Centre – Brigadier Kallie Conteh in response to calls for some cases to be retested, said: “Firstly, Sierra Leone uses only the WHO approved PCR test kits, unlike others who choose to use the rapid test kit which, by the way is not an approved test kit by WHO.
“Given BBC Umaru Fofana’s report, the only thing that will explain the discrepancy between the COVID-19 testing results of the returnees from Kuwait is either someone (i.e. in Kuwait or Sierra Leone) deliberately or in error concluded false positives or faulty testing kits.
I am calling on government, the Ministry of Health, EOC and other relevant authorities to do proper testing of the different test kits available in our country to ascertain whether someone is positive or negative of Covid-19.
Some hotels in Jamaica are reporting between 60-90% occupancy through a combination of local and international guests and this is fuelling optimism for a healthy 2020 winter tourism season, Minister of Tourism, Edmund Bartlett, has said.\tBartlett...
The Oklahoma Eagle Newswire The Tulsa Health Department (THD) has launched a new assessment, testing and contact tracing solution to streamline its COVID-19 testing process. The online platform, powered by Qualtrics, focuses on three steps: assess, test and contact trace. Individuals can now access the assessment and schedule their COVID-19 test and receive results online. […]
– Unnamed Member, Tennessee Black Caucus
Even as Black and Brown communities continue to be disproportionately impacted by COVID-19, officials appear to be working at cross purposes to a national movement to ensure members of minority communities have access to testing by sharing the names and address of those who test positive with first responders—including sheriffs and police.
There are also concerns such information could be used by police to “red-line” communities where people are sick and as a result, police and other first responders may seek to avoid addresses where individuals have tested positive out of fear of contracting the virus themselves.
Requiring local boards of health to disclose the addresses of people who have tested positive for COVID-19 to officials administering the response to emergency calls and, in turn, to first responders, is not sound public health policy.”
The IE Voice/Black Voice News questioned the California Department of Public Health regarding whether the state was sharing personal and specific COVID-19 test information with first responders including the police and/or whether it was aware of any counties sharing such information.
Riverside County Department of Public Health spokesperson Jose Arballo acknowledged, “We provide information to first responders (at least name and address) of those who have tested positive.
MONTEGO BAY, St James — At least one key player in the lucrative cannabis industry has come out in strong defence of the Jamaica Government and the Cannabis Licensing Authority (CLA), which have recently been blamed for dragging their feet on export licensing, resulting in companies fleeing the island.
A recent article in Forbes Magazine cited frustration, due to “lack of action” on the part of the CLA and the Jamaica Government as well as “stalled governmental decisions on export licences” as reasons for “Aphria, Aurora and other big Ag cannabis companies pulling out of Jamaica”.
And, speaking during the annual CanEx Jamaica Business Conference and Expo, a business-to-business conference in Montego Bay last year, Bruce Linton, Canadian business tycoon and former CEO of Canadian multi-billion-dollar giant, Canopy, the world's largest publicly traded cannabis company by market value, rated the CLA among the two best cannabis regulatory systems in the world.
“The CLA is aware of a May 30, 2020 Forbes article circulating titled 'Aphria, Aurora and other big Ag Cannabis Companies Pull Out Of Jamaica'.
“While the authority cannot speak to the internal decisions of a licensee, licence holders are not hindered in their ability to export product from Jamaica due to the non-passage of import/export legislation,” stated the news release from the CLA.
