ABC/Randy Holmes

ABC/Randy HolmesSting was among the many music artists who took part in a six-hour telethon Sunday seeking to raise money for doctors, nurses and other healthcare workers fighting the COVID-19 pandemic in Jamaica.

The event, titled Telethon Jamaica, Together We Stand, which was broadcast around the world, underscored the hardships ahead not only for smaller countries like Jamaica but bigger ones like the U.S., which is still battling the coronavirus.

“Please donate to support your healthcare workers, who are fighting this amazingly courageous fight against COVID-19,” Sting said in a pre-recorded video show on the program. “Stay at home, and donate.”

Among the many other artists who took part in or contributed video messages to the telethon were Wyclef Jean, Shaggy, Jimmy Cliff, Gloria Estefan and the late Bob Marley‘s sons Ziggy, Damian and Stephen.

Sunday night’s unified message for Jamaicans echoed one that authorities began pushing weeks ago inside the U.S., as stateside hospitals, police departments and other first responders scrambled to secure enough masks and other gear to protect themselves.

“The people of the United States…see how disastrous this is as a disease, and the impact it can have on even the most well-resourced health service,” Jamaica’s prime minister, Andrew Holness, said during the telethon.

The show is viewable at VP Records’ YouTube channel.

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