Jamaica: PM Holness declares curfew on New Year's eve

Prime Minister of Jamaica Andrew Holness declared that the country would go into curfew on midnight of 31 December 2021.

Wednesday, 29th December 2021

Prime Minister of Jamaica Andrew Holness declared that the country would go into curfew on midnight of 31 December 2021. He said the new hours would start at 1 am on 1 January 2022. In a post shared on the Facebook page, Prime Minister added that people must adhere to the new guidelines as COVID-19 and the crime rate surge across Jamaica. However, he did not share more details related to the ending of the curfew hours. People have welcomed the decision of PM Holness as the majority of the public would get time to celebrate their New Year's eve. Replying to the curfew post of PM Holness on Facebook, a user named Hillary Allan added," It must be extremely frustrating being the Prime Minister of this country. Every measure put in place is a problem. When the country was in lockdown, even with the first variant, there was a complaint; you are all dying of hunger." Another user named Sweetie Jamaican added, "Mi frightened, I thought you were about to change the time to early lockdown based on lives being lost at illegal parties and with the spread of the new Omicron variant etc. Thanks for the reminder BroGad! New years eve nuh good again. Watch night can keep; that's good. Hope January & February Covid cases decrease." Some also asked Prime Minister Holness to reconsider his decision; a user named Sacha Brown stated, "You must do what is best for the people. Earlier curfew this time, sir, Please reconsider this decision." Many people also advised the Prime Minister to keep the existing curfew timings and let people learn from the mistakes, "Mr Prime Minister sir please let the curfew time remains as it is, this is happening too long now for people not to learn and take responsibility for their foolish choices," wrote a Facebook user named Jermain Foster.