St Catherine quarantine forces banks to close

With the government imposing seven-day quarantine for the entire parish of St Catherine, the National Commercial Bank (NCB) and the Jamaica National (JN) Bank have issued temporary closure notices.

For NCB, all of eight branches, some outside of the parish, have closed during the “quarantine period based on their physical location or because a significant percentage of the branch’s team members reside in the quarantine area”.

The eight NCB branches are Cross Roads, Half-Way-Tree, Linstead, Old Harbour, Portmore, St. Jago, Washington Boulevard and Windward Road.

“Due to the quarantine, we will have reduced staffing in certain areas of our business. As a result, there may be delays and longer wait times with the following services,” the country’s largest commercial bank said in an advisory, while urging its customers to utilise its online services.

Meantime, JN Bank announced the short-term closing of branches in Old Harbour, Spanish Town, Portmore Pines and Linstead.

“In accordance with the Government of Jamaica’s lockdown order for the Parish of St. Catherine, JN Bank has made the following adjustments to its opening hours for your safety and the safety of our employees,” it said in a notice to its members.

All other JN Bank locations will remain open between 9:00 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., while Saturday banking locations, except those in St Catherine, will continue to offer services from 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. The Gayle and Annotto Bay locations in St. Mary will open 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.

The company noted that customers will still be able to utilise its online banking service and “24-hour access to Smart ATMs at our locations islandwide”.

Meantime, noted financial institution, First Heritage Co-operative (FHC) Credit Union has also closed its St Catherine branches at Old Harbour, Spanish Town and Portmore, as well as locations at May Pen, New Kingston and Kingston Gardens.

As of today, the country has 125 confirmed COVID-19 cases. Fifty-two of these cases are from Alorica, a BPO call centre located in Portmore, St Catherine.