Committee: Most MPs submitted chik-V clean-up programmes

The National Health Emergency Response Monitoring Committee is reporting that, to date, most members of parliament (MPs) have submitted their work programmes under the Chik-V National Integrated Vector Control/Clean-Up Programme.

According to the committee, 55 of the 63 MPs submitted their work programmes and, of that number, 52 were already approved and under way. The clean-up programme, which was announced by Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller in October, involves the clean-up of communities and an integrated vector-control programme, specifically geared towards reducing the breeding sites of the Aedes Aegypti mosquito, which transmits chik-V.

Advance payments

Chair of the National Health Emergency Response Monitoring Committee, Senator Sandrea Falconer, has advised that 50 per cent advance payments for all approved work programmes have already been made.

"These payments have already been forwarded to parish councils and the implementing agencies chosen to carry out the work on behalf of MPs," she said.

Falconer further advised that the deadline date for the submission of work programmes by the remaining MPs was been extended to today.

The programme of emergency clean-up is coordinated by a team including the Ministry of Health, the Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management, the Jamaica Defence Force (JDF), the JEEP Secretariat, and the Ministry of Finance and Planning.