Black Immigrant Daily News

Government officials cut a ribbon on Friday to open a newly constructed post office in Cane Garden Bay.

“This facility is so special to me because I received my first mail at this post office because I went to school right over there,” Deputy Premier Kye Rymer said during the opening ceremony. “I know the residents have been asking about this for quite some time, and today we are happy to cut the ribbon and turn over the keys to the postmaster general.”

Mr. Rymer, who is the minister of communications and works, said the new post office is a state-of-the-art facility that was fully funded by the government, according to Government Information Services.

Natural Resources and Labour Minister Mitch Turnbull — who represents Cane Garden Bay as the Second District representative in the House of Assembly — acknowledged that government has struggled to repair facilities damaged in hurricanes Irma and Maria in 2017.

“I have continued to fight and make representation for and on behalf of the people in my constituency, and I want to thank them for their patience and tugging and even making representations in their own right,” he said.

Mr. Turnbull added that work is underway to reopen other facilities in the district as well.
“Everyone that is here, we invite you to come and rent your mailboxes, understand what is going on here, and let us continue to build and revive this community,” he said.

Iris Romney, the acting postmaster general, shared plans that are in the pipeline for the post office.

“It has been long in coming, but there’s a time and a season for everything, and now is Cane Garden Bay’s season for their mailboxes and reopening of the post office,” she said.

Ms. Romney invited residents to sign up for newly added mailboxes, and she said plans are also in place for an internet café.

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The British Caribbean Insurance Company (BCIC), in partnership with The Multicare Youth Foundation (MYF), and the HEART/NSTA Trust, recently launched its year-long youth development and mentorship programme called the ‘BCIC YUTE Work Project’ at the Trench Town Polytechnic College in Kingston.

The orientation introduced 30 youth from Parade Gardens and surrounding communities to opportunities for training and mentorship.

The general insurer has furthered its commitment to disadvantaged youth by extending its undertaking to complete a certificate programme at the College of Insurance and Professional Studies. This provides an additional option for the young participants to branch out into other fields of employment.

Established in 1962, BCIC is celebrating 60 years in business in 2022, and the project is an extension of those celebrations, as the company looks to give back to Jamaica and say ‘thank you’.

Managing Director of BCIC, Peter Levy, wants to re-energize the company’s commitment to building Jamaica through investment in its people.

“We wanted to celebrate in a way that showed not just how much we appreciate the people that have made it possible for us to be in business for 60 years, but that we remain committed to them. This project will impact the lives of individuals who are the future of this country, and hopefully one day 10, 15 or even 25 years from now, BCIC’s next Managing Director will be from youth who benefitted from this project” he said.

MYF, a non-profit organisation focused on youth and community development, particularly among students and young people from Kingston’s inner cities, led the recruitment of the youth, and is providing life skills training, mentorship and internship placement. They are the implementing agency, responsible for active supervision of the programme.

Executive Director at MYF, Alicia Glasgow Gentles said: “The youth enrolled in the BCIC YUTE Work project are considered unattached; they are neither enrolled in school or a training programme. The project offers young people the opportunity to be meaningfully engaged in productive activities that will produce positive outcomes in their lives and the communities in which they live. They receive vocational skills training and certification, mentorship, on the job experience and social support, leading to increased opportunities for educational, economic and social empowerment.”

HEART, a leading provider of technical vocational education and training in Jamaica, is offering a 12 week in-person training and job certification course that prepares at-risk youth for roles in customer service, business administration and record keeping.

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A 61-year-old man from Region Three (Essequibo Islands-West Demerara) is the country’s latest Covid-19 fatality.

The man, who was unvaccinated, succumbed on September 11. This takes the country’s death toll to 1,280.

There are 13 new infections, taking the total positives detected to date to 71,222. Seven persons are recovering in the hospitals while 123 are isolating at home.

Eight individuals are in institutional quarantine. Meanwhile, recoveries stand at 69,812.

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The head of the World Health Organization said Wednesday that the number of coronavirus deaths worldwide last week was the lowest reported in the pandemic since March 2020, marking what could be a turning point in the years-long global outbreak.

At a press briefing in Geneva, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the world has never been in a better position to stop COVID-19.

“We are not there yet, but the end is in sight,” he said, comparing the effort to that made by a marathon runner nearing the finish line. “Now is the worst time to stop running,” he said. “Now is the time to run harder and make sure we cross the line and reap all the rewards of our hard work.”

In its weekly report on the pandemic, the UN health agency said deaths fell by 22 per cent in the past week, at just over 11,000 reported worldwide. There were 3.1 million new cases, a drop of 28 per cent, continuing a weeks-long decline in the disease in every part of the world.

Still, the WHO warned that relaxed COVID testing and surveillance in many countries means that many cases are going unnoticed. The agency issued a set of policy briefs for governments to strengthen their efforts against the coronavirus ahead of the expected winter surge of COVID-19, warning that new variants could yet undo the progress made to date.

“If we don’t take this opportunity now, we run the risk of more variants, more deaths, more disruption, and more uncertainty,” Tedros said.

The WHO reported that the omicron subvariant BA.5 continues to dominate globally and comprised nearly 90 per cent of virus samples shared with the world’s biggest public database. In recent weeks, regulatory authorities in Europe, the US and elsewhere have cleared tweaked vaccines that target both the original coronavirus and later variants including BA.5.

Maria Van Kerkhove, the WHO’s technical lead on COVID-19, said the organisation expected future waves of the disease, but was hopeful those would not cause many deaths.

Meanwhile, in China, residents of a city in the country’s far western Xinjiang region have said they are experiencing hunger, forced quarantines and dwindling supplies of medicine and daily necessities after more than 40 days in a lockdown prompted by COVID-19.

Hundreds of posts from Ghulja riveted users of Chinese social media last week, with residents sharing videos of empty refrigerators, feverish children and people shouting from their windows.

On Monday, local police announced the arrests of six people for “spreading rumours” about the lockdown, including posts about a dead child and an alleged suicide, which they said “incited opposition” and “disrupted social order.”

Leaked directives from government offices show that workers are being ordered to avoid negative information and spread “positive energy” instead. One directed state media to film “smiling seniors” and “children having fun” in neighbourhoods emerging from the lockdown.

The government has ordered mass testing and district lockdowns in cities across China in recent weeks, from Sanya on tropical Hainan island to southwest Chengdu, to the northern port city of Dalian.

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