Returning residents, home vs state quarantine !

One April 8, 2019 under my blog post entitled What should be the GOJ approach when the ports are reopened, I made the following recommendations but added no cost.

There must be however the following actions that must be taken on arrival at the ports.

1. Mandatory Temperature checks( automatic) and anyone with a fever must be taken to a government quarantine facility.
2. Every person must be interviewed to determine if that have been in contact with an infected person but not showing signs. These people must be taken to government quarantine facility and held for minimum of two weeks and must be tested.
3. All persons who based on assessment are asked to go quarantined at home must be fitted with a GPS wrist band tracking device which will allow the MOH to track their movements to determine if they are staying at home.
4. The GOJ should procure these devices which cost about $3,000 each and have them in place prior to the opening of the ports.https://commonsenseja.wordpress.com/2020/04/08/what-should-be-the-goj-approach-when-the-ports-are-reopened/

Yesterday the government reported that 330 national will return home today and the cost of that exercise ( quarantine only) will be in the order of $64m.

I had earlier noted the following, in arriving at the cost of repatriating all our nationals overseas which was estimated at approx. 5000.

There is no way on the planet that Jamaica can afford such cost, and not only is the cost a problem but finding place to house them would mean an inordinate delay in getting of them all home.

I am again suggesting that we abandon that idea and seek to have these folks in home quarantine while assuming that 10% of those coming in will require state quarantine due to either or a combination of the following

1. The have been in contact with a confirmed case at some point in time
2. They have elevated temperature
3. Their home situation does not allow for home quarantine

I have now arrived at a cost for this and based on the numbers I used with a exchange rate of US$1 = J$140. We could see significant cost savings but following this approach , and those funds could not be redirected to helping those who are currently out of work by providing them an additional 2 weeks pay.

We would be looking at savings of over one billion Jamaica dollars if this recommendation is taken on board

Comparison under one table

Bless

How will the covid complaint office space look ?

As Jamaica and many in the Caribbean and across the world look to return work and normalcy, we at this point can accept that things will never return to what it was pre-covid.

The focus of this piece however, will be on Jamaica and will attempt to examine what needs to be taken into consideration as we begin to draw up reopening plans.

Years ago we moved away from cubicles on the office floor to a more open floor plan, as we sought to keep managers, and staff at the same level, ie avoid the widely held view that if you have a office cubicle you were somehow elevated above those without that “feature”.

In addition the open office concept allowed managers to see what was taking place on the floor and hopefully that would lead to greater levels of productivity, given you cannot now hide your computer screen. The jury is out as to whether or not that actually worked.

Here are some things I think we need to consider as we move to this phase.

1. The government as well as firms need to reach out to the engineering community to help with the layout of offices for greater levels of productivity and as such industrial engineers should be part of that discussion.
2. HVAC engineers must also be part of any task force that is being put together , I will explain more below
3. Finally safety engineers needs to be on board as well.

A few consideration for the new office space

1. Move away from open concept and have partition around every work desk of no less than 5ft tall. This provides a physical barrier between workers and in so doing there may not be a need for six ft clearance since we are not in “free” space .
2. Floor density; We must limit the number of people in each space to take into consideration the following( HVAC Engineers)
   • Carbon dioxide level likely to be on each floor/space
   • VOC Volatile Organic compound level on each floor/space
   • The air circulation rate, that is how often is the air exchanged each hour(conditioned space)
   • Fresh air intake (conditioned space)
   • The type of air filter required to clean the air and reduce spread of airborne pathogens.
3. Location of rest rooms and how are they ventilated, can pathogens get into the main circulation system .
4. Sanitation mats at all office entrances as well as rest rooms, should these be considered .
5. Hands free sanitation station vs each person having their own sanitizer.
6. Wearing of mouth and nose covering in the office space.
7. Protocols to be followed should someone become infected during this phase.
8. Tracking devices for employees while on the job, knowing where they have been while at work ( that includes going on the road at breaks etc. devices however must be left at the work place once they leave for home.
9. Break/Lunch room layout to how to incorporate social distancing in such designed. Recall while eat and talking now mask is involved

These a but a few things that are required and this cannot be done by politicians and business people, as such I would urge the government of Jamaica to get in touch the the Jamaica Institute of Engineers(JIE), The Professional Engineers Registration Board (PERB) as well as the Jamaica Society for Energy Engineers( JSEE) and get representative of these groups on board. Many engineers could be a member of all three groups.

This will give us he best chance to draft up plans to coexist with Covid-19 while staying ahead of the curve

Bless

Contact tracing conversation , any possible solutions here

Someone “ Jay you hear about the discrimination that affecting the contact tracing matter”

Me “ Yes heard it on the  media conference last night”

Someone “So,  don’t you think the government, knowing how our people are should have expected  this and put something in place to avoid this”.

Me “ I certainly think so, so let me ask you what you think should have been done , now that you know the issue”

Someone “They should contact the people by phone and tell them we will send unmarked vehicles into their communities so the residents would not get suspicious”

Me “Why would you make such a suggestion”

Someone “Well once you go into the communities with big MOH van and police people ago say is a covid case and start discriminate “

Me “So sending an unmarked MOH and unmarked police car in would fix that.  I suspect the MOH people would not have ID either, so no one would know they are from the MOH. Sound to me like a perfect plan for criminal to exploit”

Someone “That’s true, never looked at it that way“

Me “Well that’s how things go, we don’t always have the answer despite what we think, so what else you have since that one can’t work”

Someone “Well they could contact them by phone, and ask them to come into to a health center and some other designation location for interview”

Me “So how would they get there “?

Someone “How you mean, take taxi or bus “?

Me “So what if they have the virus, would they not expose others?”

Someone “Well you have a point then, maybe the MOH bus could pick them up”

Me “What, the same bus that would attract attentions”

Someone “Jay every solution I come up with you shoot it down saying it cannot work, so what you think”

Me “ I never initiated this conversation, you started it because you thought you had all the answers, I am simply playing devils advocate and demonstrating how difficult it is to make decisions , as no matter what you do there is someone or a group who will tell you it cannot work and you should have come up with a better plan. I will give you an example.  Just last week the Minister told Alorica workers to show up at the offices for testing.

Most people lashed the MOH saying it was a bad idea because that would put workers on public transportation potentially exposing more people to the virus  and instead said the MOH should have sent its bus for them.

The workers said they would not be taking no MOH bus as that would stigmatize them in ether communities, do you now see the problem we have in this country.“

Someone “You have a valid point, so what is your solution“

Me “At this point I am drawing blank, but I have something they could consider.  The MOH should get from JUTA a number of private buses, these would have the JUTA sign on the buses. They should tell people to call in if they have been in close contact with anyone who may have tested positive. In addition is they don’t know they have been in such contact  the MOH should call them and arrange with the JUTA buses across the country to take these folks to a healthcare facility just outside of where they reside so the samples can be taken and the people then taken back to their place of abode. This method allows for the following to happen

1. Privacy for the families/family involved
2. Security, the folks know which buses are coming in, they are marked, and they also can verify plate number.
3. The people can tested and no one inside the community would be aware
4. Less risk of stigmatization since no one would know.

For it to work however the MOH people and healthcare centers would need to keep of their damn phones and especially WhatsApp. The publc don’t need to know a JUTA bus was sent into Jobs lane and 5 covid patients were removed, as that is exactly what is going to happen if the MOH staff and connected people are not sworn to secrecy.

This is NOT an attempt to hide pertinent information from the public and I can hear the opposition demanding transparency and asking for the MOH to come clean and tell the public if it has ran out of vehicles and is using the JUTA services to transport Covid patients, folks now is Not the time for this, we have a problem of genuine fear and we must be responsible in how we treat with it.  I have no problems if the Ministers tells this to his opposition spokesman, but this must remain out of the purview of the general public.

Someone “Jay, how you come up with this”

Me “ I don’t even know, but I do they to think out of the proverbial box, I am a solution driven person, we must note though it will only be a matter of time before the public becomes aware and the MOH would have to revise its strategy in this regard. This is not an admission that the system has failed but a recognition that confidentiality has been compromised and they must the methodology to avoid the stigmatization the former system was meant to address in the first place.”

Bless.

Leadership requires clarity of thought and purpose Part two. PNP does not get it !

The opposition PNP has blasted the government for taking too long to act in closing our ports to traffic out of the USA and the UK, both of which has been the leading source of the Covid-19 cases in Jamaica.

When the ports were eventually closed, there was a lobby to reopen them temporarily with the final cut off being March 24, 2020 as it was noted that there were persons already in transit and needed to get home.

It was later discovered that during the period March 18 – 24, over 5,000 persons came into the island who could not be located as they had either provided wrong or incomplete information of the customs declaration forms. The opposition rightly hauled the government over coal for failing to put measures in place to Identify its nationals and ensure they could have been traced and were following home quarantine measures.

One week ago a group of farm workers insisted they wanted to travel overseas to take up farm work opportunities and were willing to take on the risk and in so doing signed a waiver absolving the government of any cost should they contract the virus.

Horace Daley who does not appear to be the brightest bulb on the shelf blasted the government for being wicked, suggesting the men should not be allowed to leave and should be held here against there free will to travel. One should note that the ports are open to outgoing traffic and any attempt to prevent them would have been unconstitutional . Noted constitutional lawyer Dr Lloyd Barnett actually commented that the government could not stop these men as the have rights under the constitution, but Horace Daley in is usual bellicose style insisted the government had erred.

A few days later a cruise-ship with 45 Jamaican crew members were anchored off the coast of Jamaica and sought landing rights, which were denied as the ports to incoming human traffic was closed.

Once the again the Opposition which seems to always wants to swim against the tide demanded that the ports be opened to accommodate the men, despite the fact that a closure order was in effect and NO provision would have been in place to safely house these nationals.

The position taken by the opposition members as noted by the examples above, shows a party that clearly lacks direction and focus and if left up to themselves would lead to an explosion of Covid-19 cases on the island similar to what took place when they failed miserably to manage the Chik-V crises.

The PNP has failed in the past to effectively handle previous public health crises and their actions thus far serves to inform me they have yet to figure out how to deal with public health emergencies and as such their advise cannot be relied on.

PS

Bless