Protesters against COVID-19 vaccine arrested in Jamaica
Several members of the opposition party in Jamaica were arrested Wednesday after staging a protest against mandatory vaccination in the island.
According to a report by the Caribbean News Weekly, Jamaican police clashed with the protesters from the United Independents’ Congress (UIC) who marched from St. William Grant Park to the Gordon House of the Parliament of Jamaica.
The police had warned against protests in Jamaica’s capital, adding that it has not received any request to hold such activity across the island. Aside from the mandatory vaccination, the protesters were also demanding all 63 Members of Parliament to resign.
In a tweet, the Jamaica Constabulary Force said that it has taken into custody the main organizer of the protest and the leader of the party, Joseph L Patterson, after he failed to show a permit to hold a protest. He was released shortly, according to a Facebook post by the opposition party.
In a statement, the Jamaican police said that while the Constitution protects the right of Jamaicans to a peaceful protest, “a march of that nature would not be authorized at this time, as it would be in breach of the Disaster Risk Management Act (DRMA), which stipulates that no more than 10 persons must be gathered in any public place.”
Jamaica has been considered as a high risk country by the United Kingdom after its COVID-19 cases surged drastically in the recent weeks. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), there have been 80,780 confirmed cases of COVID-19 with 1,800 deaths in Jamaica in January 2020.
As police arrested several of the protestors, some members of the public were demanding their release.
Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness has been urging people to get vaccinated against the virus, adding that he wants to have at least 65 percent of the population vaccinated by March 2022 to achieve herd immunity. As of 16 September 2021, the government has been able to administer a total of 699,529 vaccine doses to its residents.