PETERSFIELD, Westmoreland — Two days after Daniel Wisdom took to IG Live to quash rumours that he had died from COVID-19, he lost his battle with the disease.
The death of the educator and businessman is just the latest in a string of deaths of well-known individuals from Westmoreland. Many who had seen his broadcast from his hospital bed had been holding out hope that the man, who many knew as Wiz, would survive.
“As you can see, I’m under the COVID. Wiz deh bout same way, yeah man mi a work pon it,” he assured during the broadcast on Monday, as he adjusted his oxygen mask. “Suh fi all a di people dem weh seh me drop out, nuh listen to dem; a nuh suh God work.”
He also pleaded for those watching to add their prayers to his, so he would have a speedy recovery.
“Mi need all the prayers mi can get, mi a guh beat it,” added a confident Wisdom whose 50th birthday was three weeks ago. He died on Wednesday.
His friend Latoya McDonald is distraught. After seeing the number of deaths climbing, she and other family members got vaccinated on Sunday.
“Too many people around me dying, it’s crazy here,” she said.
Wisdom, she said, would be missed. She often printed her work at his shop, Wiz World, and he often encouraged her to be a graphic designer, she said.
For Caydonia Young, one of Wisdom’s past students, she will remember him as the best information technology teacher she has ever had.
“Wisdom was a very quiet and jovial individual. He was instrumental in teaching me at the Petersfield High School,” said Young.
He would encourage his students to do their best, at any given task, she said, adding that he will be missed.
Westmoreland continues to be one of the parishes hardest hit by the novel coronavirus pandemic. According to health ministry data, in the 24-hour period leading up to August 24, it had the second-highest number of new cases, only five less than Kingston and St Andrew’s 80. Meanwhile, between August 21 and 23, Westmoreland tied with St James, at four, for the highest number of COVID-19-related deaths in the country.
