Hand sanitiser dispensers for courts, police stations in St Elizabeth

BLACK RIVER, St Elizabeth — A three-week campaign to raise money and equipment recently resulted in Custos of St Elizabeth Beryl Rochester presenting $250,000 worth of hand sanitising materials for use at police stations and courthouses across the parish.

Rochester made the presentation to chief of police in St Elizabeth, Superintendent Samuel Morgan, at the Black River Police Station recently.

“It really was just a matter of making phone calls,” Rochester told the Jamaica Observer by telephone. “I called people who I know are loyal to St Elizabeth, some of them living, working and operating businesses elsewhere, and they responded as I knew they would,” she said.

Contributions came in all sizes, the custos said, some as small as $2,000, but “everything counts”.

The donation will enable non-contact hand sanitiser dispensers to be set up at access points to police stations and courthouses, allowing staff as well as visitors to use them on entering and leaving, Rochester said.

“Good hygiene is essential to how we cope with COVID-19,” the custos told the Observer, “especially since it is clear that this disease will be with us for a while. We have to prepare ourselves to sanitise and clean the spaces that everybody uses.”

Such strategies would become even more important with the easing of restrictions, which will mean more people moving about, including the planned reopening of schools in September, Rochester said.