Trinidad and Tobago under a state of emergency
Trinidad and Tobago have declared a State of Emergency (SOE) and an eight-hour daily curfew, as a "scared population” looks to the authorities to implement new measures to deal with rising numbers of deaths from COVID-19 and infections.
Speaking at the weekly news conference of the Ministry of Health, Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley said the SOE would go into effect at midnight. The curfew will be from 9:00 p.m. to 5:00 a.m. (local time) daily.
Trinidad and Tobago have recorded 9,900 active cases of the virus and 265 deaths since the pandemic declared last year.
Rowley called the situation frightening and warned that if the situation is allowed to multiply, “very soon we will be happy when it is only 21 because it could go to a number where 21 is a great improvement…because the more we are allowing ourselves to be infected that population of infected people would generate a large percentage of sick people and will generate a larger population of dead people."
Rowley told reporters that it has now dawned on the population that the disease should be taken very seriously, acknowledging that he has also realized that the population is fearful.
“I am sorry that it has come to coffins and faces of dead people for us to realize that we are in and have always been in a challenging place. Before, we were only dealing with numbers, but I think the population is at the stage now where the numbers are being seen to be of people even known to you," he said.
He continued: “Some of the people who have [died] recently have been known to all of us either in the work that they do or the places they have been or just who they are. So we are no longer dealing with numbers, we are now dealing with 21 deaths in one day, and if you bring that down to per hour, it is almost one person dying every hour."
“The state of emergency will remain in place until it has expired or continued,” he said, noting that under the law, the SOE will remain in place for 90 days in the first instance.
Rowley said the government had tried “very hard” to avoid imposing the SOE and the curfew but reminded the population that “virtually every country in the world” is now experiencing a new wave of pandemic.
“We had a first wave, a second, we are having a third, and of course we [should not] panic. This does not call for panic. We never panicked, we looked at it squarely in the eye and decided what is required of us, and this is what is required of us at this time."
Rowley said it is not feasible to shut down the whole country. He said workers in essential services would be allowed to function to prevent the rest of the population from engaging in excess buying and causing panic.
Rowley said entities such as gas stations, pharmacies, supermarkets would be allowed to operate within the eight hours, "but the other areas we will shut down completely."
“We were carrying a balancing act life and livelihood all the time," Rowley said, noting that the government is, at this time, prioritizing the lives and health of citizens.
He said he is hoping the population will fully cooperate with “these hard measures...
"To try to avoid this now is to prolong the twilight period and also to allow a situation where what you have seen outside the hospitals…where those who are dying are dying because they cannot get a breath of oxygen, we are trying to avoid that," he said.
The prime minister also sought to dismiss reports that Trinidad and Tobago were not able to acquire vaccines to deal with the pandemic, insisting that the situation is a worldwide issue and that even some Caribbean Community (CARICOM) countries had gone outside the World Health Organization (WHO) approved vaccines to purchase the product.
He insisted that Trinidad and Tobago would continue to be guided by the WHO. He appealed to the population to get vaccinated and help the country achieve herd immunity.
Epidemiologist Dr Avery Hinds told reporters that the number of COVID-19 cases showed “an upward trend” and that health authorities were worried about that situation and its effect on the healthcare system.
Principal Medical Officer at the Ministry of Health, Dr Maryam Abdool-Richards, said that the seven hospitals across the country were now having an average of 380 admissions for the last seven days.
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