Regional News

(Jamaica Gleaner) The second positive COVID-19 case at a Portmore call centre and the ordering of staff to self-quarantine have triggered more concern that business process outsourcing (BPO) companies – characterised by high-density office arrangements – may be incubators for the spread of the new coronavirus.

(Jamaica Star) Health authorities are currently tracking some 1,000 Portland residents who they believe were in contact – directly or indirectly – with persons who have tested positive for COVID-19.

(Trinidad Express) A man and a woman were found shot dead in a car in Trincity yesterday in what police believe is a double homicide.

(Trinidad Guardian) Police have discovered the human remains of what they believe to be of a one-year-old male child.

(Jamaica Observer) A Jamaican woman who returned to the island on March 21 is facing the brunt of COVID-19 fear among residents in her community, even as she has been in self-quarantine for the last 21 days.

(Jamaica Gleaner) Thirty-one-year-old Mark Samuels (real name withheld to protect privacy) is rejoicing today, having recovered from the coronavirus.

(Jamaica Gleaner) Call-centre workers employed to a business process outsourcing (BPO) outfit are now concerned following the announcement that one member of staff has tested positive for COVID-19, triggering fear across its Portmore and Kingston locations.

(Jamaica Gleaner) Jamaicans in Toronto have welcomed the Court of Appeal for Ontario’s decision last week to uphold the first-degree murder conviction of a Jamaican man in the death of his daughter, whose body was found in a burning suitcase.

(Trinidad Guardian) After waking up yesterday morning to the tragic news of the passing of his uncle Winford Atherley in New York to COVID-19, a local government representative is appealing to Trinidadians to take this disease seriously.

(Jamaica Gleaner) Kenisha Gordon, the councillor for the Spanish Town Division in St Catherine has resigned.    Gordon announced her resignation in a terse letter to the chairman of the St Catherine Municipal Corporation Norman Scott on Thursday but offered no reason.

(Trinidad Guardian) Mere hours after he warned the public against hosting COVID parties, Commissioner of Police Gary Griffith led a group of officers into St Ann’s where they shut down such a party at Alicia’s Guest House in Coblentz Gardens.

(Trinidad Guardian) Police Commissioner Gary Griffith yesterday called on people to cancel the COVID parties they have been planning.

(Trinidad Express) Some Indo-Trinidad and Tobago nationals stranded in Barbados are of the view they are being rejected from entering this country because of their race.

(Trinidad Guardian) There is now a ban by some supermarkets on customers who are not wearing face masks to protect against COVID-19.

(Trinidad Express) Health Minister Terrence Deyalsing called once more for citizens to comply with the stay at home advisory and other COVID-19 measures as the country battle to stave off the spread of the deadly coronavirus.

MANAUS,  (Reuters) – Brazil’s Amazonas state warned yesterday that its health system has been overwhelmed by the coronavirus epidemic, with all intensive care beds and ventilators already taken as a result of the outbreak.

(Jamaica Gleaner) The vice-principal of the Excelsior High School in Kingston, Colleen Walker, has been shot dead.

(Jamaica Observer) Jamaica will not be using the anti-malarial drug, hydroxychloroquine, to treat persons who have contracted the coronavirus (COVID-19), says Chief Medical Officer (CMO), Ministry of Health and Wellness, Dr Jacquiline Bisasor McKenzie.

(Jamaica Star) More that a dozen commercial sex workers who operate within Falmouth, Trelawny, say they are now reeling from the effects of the coronavirus, even though the parish is yet to report a case.

The HOLNESS administration is contemplating what it describes as a “controlled re-entry” of Jamaicans who have been stranded overseas and those who have a strong desire to return home.