Reprinted from Caribbean Net News
caribbeannetnews.com

Jamaica lifts ban on football matches
12-16-2006

KINGSTON, Jamaica (AFP): In a release issued Friday, the federation said that all parishes, with the exception of Kingston and St Andrew and St Catherine in the south east of the island were free to resume playing matches.

On Thursday, officials imposed the ban because of the spread of the deadly malaria disease which is now affecting parts of the island.

A number of persons tested positive for the mosquito parasite two weeks ago and since then a total of 61 persons have tested positive, all from the same area near Kingston.

The release from the JFF did not indicate when games in the island's premier club competition the National Premier League would resume but said one football player in the NPL had tested positive and had been hospitalized.

The player or the club was not named.

The partial lifting of the ban was on the advice of the chairman of the JFF Medical Committee, Dr Winston Dawes, who had made the initial order to stop the games.