Holness Says Support Coming For Entertainment Sector

Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness has said that financial assistance will be made available to members of the entertainment industry who continue to reel from the COVID-19 containment measures, which have brought the island’s sector to a standstill.

Holness made the announcement while speaking at the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) annual conference on Sunday (November 28).

The party leader admitted that the COVID-19 containment measures had dealt a serious blow to stakeholders in the sector, and committed to put something in place to help these players.

Holness shared that even for entertainment players who have multiple sources of income they have been hit hard, recounting the story of a dancer he met while on a
recent vaccination tour.

“He is a dancer but he is also an enterprising business man, bringing people from overseas to stay at his Airbnb; to learn and experience Jamaican culture. So he has been hit twice. He’s been hit with the shutdown in entertainment and hit with the shutdown in tourism,” Holness said.

Holness shared that he promised to assist the man, in addition to entertainment players more generally.

“We will do something for the entertainment sector generally, we have contemplated how to and how we can, very quickly after the pandemic resuscitate and support the sector,” Holness said.

“The sector is responsible for brand Jamaica and for keeping the Jamaican flag flying all around the world;an incalculable benefit that we get. So we can’t be mean spirited to the entertainment sector,” added Holness.

Jamaica’s entertainment sector was closed shortly after the first COVID-19 case in March 2020.

Though the sector briefly opened with strict rules during summer 2020, it was quickly shuttered within weeks as Jamaica grappled with a third wave of the pandemic.

The nightly curfews and social gathering rules have also curbed entertainment activities.