Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness has announced new curfew measures to come into effect in the parish of Westmoreland on Wednesday as the nation heads into the heart of the Christmas holiday season.

The parish will be under a tighter curfew commencing at 7 pm nightly and ending at 5 am the following morning effective from 7 pm tomorrow December 16 and ending at 5 am on December 31.

This means the curfew measures will not be in effect on New Year’s Eve night.

In addition, the general gathering limit for public places is being reduced from 15 to 10 persons.

For burials, the maximum number of persons remains at 15.

Grand Market- a shopping event which is usually one of the most anticipated events of the Christmas season in Jamaica, has been cancelled across all major towns on Christmas Eve.

The latest figures from Jamaica show that the island has a total of 11,792 cases on record, of which 8,098 have already recovered. 

The total number of deaths currently stands at 273.