Up until the time of publishing this blog post, I have been unable to find copies of the Proclamations and Regulations for the States of Emergency declared on December 6, 2022 online. I have been checking the websites I usually check without success – Office of the Prime Minister, Ministry of Justice and Parliament. I have also checked the Ministry of National Security website, which isn’t a site I usually check for copies of the Gazette.
Yesterday morning (Dec 14), I called the Jamaica Printing Services on Duke Street to ask if I could collect a copy of the gazetted documents and was told to check back in the afternnon, but I wasn’t able to. I called again this morning and was told yes, I could get the copies. So I collected them this afternoon.
UPDATE: TODAY (JUNE 22, 2022) IT HAS BEEN REPORTED THAT THE WRONG COPY OF THE SOE REGULATIONS WAS TABLED IN PARLIAMENT YESTERDAY. MEMBERS OF PARLIAMENT HAVE BEEN CALLED TO A SPECIAL SITTING OF THE HOUSE TOMORROW FOR THE TABLING OF THE CORRECT REGULATIONS. SO THE REGULATIONS BELOW WILL BE REPLACED WITH THE CORRECT COPY.
(The Gleaner article download posted on blog 25-11-22)
Update – added on November 25, 2022
I am adding a copy of the correct regulations for this State of Emergency, for completion of the record for this blog post. The State of Emergency was not extended beyond the initial 14 days. I have also posted here a link to the PBCJ recording of the sitting of the House of Representatives on June 23, 2022 at which the correct Regulations were tabled and an explanation of the error was given by the Minister of National Security, Horace Chang.
The Emergency Powers (Parish of St Catherine) (No. 2) Regulations, 2022 were tabled in Parliament by Minister of National Security Horace Change this afternoon (June 21, 2022). These are the regulations now governing the State of Emergency declared last Friday, June 17, 2022.
On Thursday, March 17, 2022, Prime Minister Andrew Holness announced that the use of the Disaster Risk Management Act (DRMA) to implement Covid-19 emergency measures would end the following day. He said that a few of the measures that had been in place would instead be administered under the Public Health Act but that all others would come to an end.
The Ministry of Health & Wellness (MOHW) issued a press release about the revocation of the DRMA Covid-19 Orders and indicated that a copy of new Public Health Enforcement Measures Order was attached to the release.
Some of the measures are scheduled to expire in a week’s time, on April 15, 2022 and the PM had indicated that a review is to take place to determine what will happen after that time. If the Covid data from the MOHW continues on the trend of the past few weeks, it is likely that the remaining measures will not be extended. The rising number of cases and hospitalisations in the UK, the USA and Canada is cause for concern, however, as in the past increases in those countries have been followed some weeks later by increases here in Jamaica.
In Parliament last week Thursday – March 17, 2022 – Prime Minister Andrew Holness announced the end of the use of the Disaster Risk Management Act (DRMA) for the issuing of measures to deal with the Covid-19 pandemic in Jamaica, after 2 years of use. This was generally expected and the Prime Minister indicated that while most measures, including the nightly curfews, would be ended outright, some would be kept in place via regulations under the Public Health Act. This includes the requirement to wear masks in certain enclosed indoor areas accessed by the public, which remains until April 15, 2022.
The Order ending the use of the DRMA, effective March 18, 2022, was displayed in Parliament but has not yet been posted online.
“With effect from the 18th day of March, 2022, the Disaster Risk Management (Declaration of Disaster Area) Order, 2020 is revoked.”
Click here to view the PBCJ recording of PM Holness’ presentation in Parliament in which he spoke about ending the use of the DRMA to implement Covid-19 measures. The presentation was made during his Budget Debate presentation and begins about 37 minutes into the recording.
The Covid-19 pandemic use of the DRMA has come to an end and there is much worthy of detailed study and comment about it, including whether it was the appropriate method for the issuing of these measures for such an extended period of time; the amount of power it placed in the hands of the Prime Minister; how the issuing of the Orders was actually handled; the way in which the details of the Orders and gazetted copies were disseminated to the public and the scope of the measures contained in the Orders and the impact they had on life in Jamaica. It will be worth looking at what lessons, if any, have been learned for next time…whatever that next time turns out to be…
Despite the fact that these Orders govern some fundamental aspects of our lives in profound ways, and have done so for the better part of the past 2 years, neither of the two government websites which post these gazetted Orders online has a complete set of them posted. The Ministry of Justice hasn’t yet posted a copy of the current order, 18 days after the measures went into effect. And the Office of the Prime Minister posted the current order on December 24, two weeks after the measures took effect, on December 10. OPM also still hasn’t posted some of the previous orders, Order No. 11, for example, nor its 2nd amendment.
MOJ DRMA Orders page on 28-12-21OPM DRMA Orders page on 28-12-21
Some would say this is of little significance because fewer and fewer people are paying attention to the measures that are announced anyway and enforcement of many measures is very relaxed and arbitrary. So post them? Don’t post them? Whatever….
But what is the impact of repeatedly announcing measures which are routinely ignored? This might be worth considering.
The current Disaster Risk Management Order has now been posted on the Ministry of Justice website, which has a new look for the arrangement of its archive of these gazetted Orders. Perhaps the transition to this new arrangement was what was causing some glitches to the page over the past couple of days. Neither Order No. 11 nor this Amendment is posted on the OPM website yet.
Here is a copy of this gazetted Order, Disaster Risk Management (Enforcement Measures) (No. 11)(Amendment) Order, 2021:
This is a copy of Disaster Risk Management Order No. 11, 2021, dated October 29, 2021. It is not the most recent Order, as Prime Minister Holness announced changes to the measures in Parliament last Tuesday (November 16, 2021). The new Order or Amendment to this Order has not yet been posted on either the OPM or Ministry of Justice website.
On Sunday, November 14, 2021, Prime Minister Andrew Holness announced that States of Public Emergency had been declared in the parishes of Westmoreland, Hanover and St James and in the police divisions of St Andrew South, Kingston Western, Kingston Central and Kingston Eastern in the Corporate Area.
Below is a copy of the Gazette with The Emergency Powers (Specified Areas in the Parishes of Kingston and St Andrew) Regulations, 2021, which relate to the current State of Emergency.
A brief amendment to the current Disaster Risk Management Order No. 10 came into effect on September 25, 2021. I have posted a copy of the gazetted amendment below.
Below is a copy of the Gazette of the latest Disaster Risk Management Order – No. 10, dated September 18, 2021. It contains Covid measures that are currently in force.
Right Steps & Poui Trees 