#KINGSTON, Jamaica – May 6 (JIS):     Chairman of Sandals Resorts International, Gordon “Butch” Stewart, through the Sandals Foundation, has donated $500,000 to each of the 63 Members of Parliament (MPs) in the House of Representatives.

            The funds, a contribution to the cornavirus (COVID-19) effort, will be used for the provision of care packages to those in need in the constituencies.

            This was announced by Prime Minister, the Most Hon. Andrew Holness, during a sitting of the Lower House on May 5.

            “The arrangement is that the grant will go to the Consolidated Fund and then it will be channelled to the Constituency Development Fund (CDF), and then it will be paid over to you [MPs],” Mr. Holness said.

            “It will be met with all the accountability as if it were public funds and we expect it to be used as according to the rules of the CDF,” he added.

            Jamaica now has 473 confirmed cases of the COVID-19. Some 291 (62 per cent) of the confirmed cases are females and 182 (38 per cent) are males. The ages of all confirmed individuals range from two months to 87 years.

            There are now 491 patients in isolation and 83 persons are in quarantine at a Government facility.

            Nine persons have died from the virus, while seven additional patients have recovered and have been released from hospital, bringing the total number of recovered and released patients to 56.

     JIS NEWS BY LATONYA LINTON