Hedonism II admits to outbreak, but disputes figures
Published:Thursday | August 12, 2021 | 12:12 AM
Negril’s Hedonism II has confirmed that some staff and guests have tested positive for COVID-19 in what it has described as “a very small outbreak” at the resort in recent weeks.
However, the resort has taken issue with yesterday’s Gleaner lead story, which quoted well-placed sources as saying that over a period of two days, 35 staff tested positive, while in the last two weeks, a number of guests had returned similar results in what is the second COVID-19 outbreak at the property.
Hedonism II guests have also reported on social media that an area of the property is being used to quarantine affected guests. They are now infamously referring to that section of the hotel as ‘COVID Island’.
One such guest, Virgina Sawyer Patton, wrote on ‘Our Favourite Jamaican Place’ about the ‘island’ while another, Anne Grace, related that four of five people she knew had tested positive and were quarantined at the resort. Grace further revealed that by the time she returned home, her partner had also tested positive.
In a separate post, Annette Heiertz said she was at Hedonism for 14 days and had tested positive.
However, in a press release yesterday, Hedonism described the Gleaner headline on Tuesday, ‘Hotel cluster: Close to 50 COVID cases found at Hedonism II’, as erroneous while reporting that of its 200 staff, only 3.4 per cent had tested positive.
This would equate to six members of staff.
The release also stated that the 280-room property tested more than 1,300 guests with less than 0.5 per cent testing positive.
“As with other resorts in Negril and indeed other businesses throughout Jamaica, we work daily with the new normal of persons contracting the virus.
“For several months, we had zero positive cases, and it was a very small outbreak among guests that prompted us to request the Ministry of Health to screen our staff,” the release said, adding that “out of respect for our team members, we will not discuss staff circumstances”.
In October last year, eight Jamaicans who vacationed at the resort returned to Kingston extremely sick with the virus, resulting in at least one person being hospitalised for 10 weeks, while a number of guests returned to the United States testing positive on arrival there.
Efforts to get further clarification on the data provided yesterday from Hedonism II’s General Manager Dermot De Loughry were unsuccessful. He read but did not respond to several Gleaner messages sent yesterday.
Owing to the looming COVID-19 crisis among hotel workers, generally, in the parish, the Ministry of Health and Wellness will commence an aggressive vaccination outreach programme today.
The ministry hopes to convince those working in the industry, who are residing in communities such as Green Island, Sandy Bay, Ramble and Cascade, to accept the AstraZeneca vaccine.
The effort comes as the only public hospital in the parish, Noel Holmes, has only 11 COVID-19 beds, which are already taken up, and the Savanna-la-Mar Hospital, their sister property in Westmoreland, is also full.
Addressing the situation in the parish yesterday, senior medical officer for the parish of Hanover Dr Singh told TVJ News that patients may be forced to receive treatment in emergency makeshift tents owing to the lack of beds.
Unable to confirm the number of workers who have tested positive, Singh said every week, there were increases across the tourism sector.