Trinidad and To­ba­go has a fifth con­firmed case of the nov­el coro­n­avirus COVID-19.

The fol­low­ing is a state­ment by the Min­istry of Health.

“The Min­istry of Health, Trinidad and To­ba­go, ad­vis­es the pop­u­la­tion of one ad­di­tion­al con­firmed case (im­port­ed) of the Coro­n­avirus Dis­ease 2019 (COVID-19). The pa­tient is a twen­ty-six (26) year old male.

Thus, in to­tal, five per­sons have test­ed pos­i­tive for COVID-19 in Trinidad and To­ba­go at this time.

Mem­bers of the pub­lic are strong­ly ad­vised to ad­here to the fol­low­ing per­son­al health pro­tec­tion mea­sures to safe­guard them­selves and their loved ones from COVID-19:

· Wash your hands prop­er­ly with soap and wa­ter

o Use an al­co­hol-based hand san­i­tiz­er if wa­ter and soap are not avail­able

· Cov­er your nose and mouth with a tis­sue when you cough or sneeze

o Dis­pose of tis­sue im­me­di­ate­ly af­ter us­ing

o Cough and sneeze in­to the crook of your el­bow if you do not have a tis­sue

· Avoid touch­ing your face

· Prac­tise so­cial dis­tanc­ing (e.g. no kiss­ing, hug­ging or hand-shak­ing, avoid so­cial gath­er­ings)

· San­i­tize hard sur­faces (e.g. table­tops, handrails, door­knobs and trol­leys) as of­ten as pos­si­ble.

· Avoid close con­tact with peo­ple who have flu-like symp­toms

· Stay home if you are ill

The Min­istry will con­tin­ue to pro­vide ac­cu­rate in­for­ma­tion to the pub­lic in a time­ly fash­ion. The pub­lic is there­fore urged to dis­re­gard and avoid shar­ing all un­con­firmed, mis­lead­ing and/or false in­for­ma­tion about COVID-19 (for­mer­ly Nov­el Coro­n­avirus).”