Last Updated on September 25, 2020, 9:46 AM AST by Anthony Morris
With growing concerns in Jamaica that more people would require hospitalizations amid a surge in the coronavirus cases, Jamaica is getting help from the United States Southern Command.
The head of the United States, Southern Command, headquartered in Doral, Florida, Adm. Craig Faller, arrived in Kingston on Thursday to officially hand over a mobile field hospital for the COVID-19 patients.
The hospital, which costs $753,000, which can care for 70 patients, would add to 350-COVID-19 bed capacity of Jamaica.
Southcom purchased the hospital with humanitarian funds, and it was transported to Jamaica last week, before Faller’s visit, onboard a US Air Force C-17 Globemaster III aircraft from Joint Base Charleston, South Carolina.
Faller visited the Caribbean nation in November during a three-nation Caribbean tour which included Haiti and the Dominican Republic.
Faller said that he was very proud that they were able to respond and find the source of the resources to procure the hospital, find a vendor in the US and put the hospital together and package it.
He said that the request for a temporary hospital came from Lt. Gen. Rocky Ricardo Meade, the Jamaican Defense Force leader whom Faller holds in high regard.
When Meade made the request again in July, Jamaica was not yet seeing the sharp increase in the COVID-19 cases or deaths that it is currently experiencing. It also had not yet set a record in hospitalized patients.
That occurred last month when the Ministry of Health reported there were a record 35 individuals hospitalized for COVID-19 — the highest count to date — and before Prime Minister Andrew Holness declared that Jamaica had entered the community transmission phase of the virus.
That happened earlier this month when the country began to see an ever bugger increase in the number of hospitalized COVID-19 patients, as well as those testing positive.
“By the very nature of community transmission, it means the virus could affect anyone, anywhere at any particular point in time,” Minister of Health and Wellness Christopher Tufton said.
Anthony Morris covers stories related to politics and regional developments. His in-depth reporting about governance and reforms makes him stand out in regional journalism, with a deep analysis of political trends and their impact on Caribbean communities.
