Trinidad PM orders lockdown after 328 Covid cases recorded
(Trinidad Express) Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley yesterday afternoon called an urgent press conference and disclosed that the country had recorded an unprecedented number of Covid-positive cases over the last 24 hours – 328.
The following restrictions were announced.
1. As of midnight, all restaurants and bars will be closed.
2. All malls will be closed.
3. All places of worship will be closed.
4. All gyms and fitness centres will be closed.
5. All spas, beauty shops and hair dressing salons will be closed.
6. Casinos, betting houses, cinemas, theatres and clubs will be closed.
7. The public service will operate on essential service only.
8. Tobago will be isolated by limiting the amount of flights in and out, limited to three flights a day.
9. The sea bridge will operate on 25 per cent capacity.
10. All tours to various areas of recreation, the Bird Sanctuary, Buccoo reef, etc ,will end.
11. Gatherings continue to be limited to groups of five.
12. Mask wearing continues to be enforced.
This period of response will be enforced until May 23.
Rowley said the existing law would allow the police to intervene in private spaces to take action in this public health emergency.
Rowley, who was a Covidpositive victim, but considers himself “one of the lucky ones”, said he met with the Covid Response team yesterday morning, and reviewed the situation in Trinidad and Tobago regarding the Covid infections.
He said today’s number, with many hours still to go, was 328, which were the confirmed infections of person found through contact tracing or those who came forward.
He said there were many other asymptomatic victims, and those not coming forward.
He said the conclusion was that the level of infections in Trinidad and Tobago was reaching disturbing heights.
He said there were some recent interventions to prevent the country arriving at a national disaster.
And if there were not more interventions, the effect, as seen in other countries, would be a large number of sick people, people dying because they were not getting the attention, and sick people spreading the virus widely.
He said when the vaccines were authorized and started to be distributed, the reaction of the population was to let its guard down.
He said this was not so, and now vaccines were not available because the suppliers were being dominated and controlled by a few.
He said yesterday morning, the Government received the worst news, in that something happened in Baltimore in the United States, where the vaccine was being produced.
He said the examination at the factory where the vaccine is being produced, is that there was contamination, which was not good news for T&T.
He said dropping guard and getting tired of fighting the pandemic has led to “unbelievable acts of dotishness” which led to an increase in the level of infection in the country.
He said people were socializing in the aisles of supermarkets.
“Who are these people?” he asked.
He said the monitoring of the behaviour of people in the country, it was the behaviour of people in the homes of citizens that were driving the Covid spread.
He said that in some of those gatherings, there were people from babies to octogenarians, and these gatherings were driving up the numbers.