Cab­i­net is meet­ing to­day to dis­cuss what pro­to­cols should be ac­ti­vat­ed in the event of a Wuhan coro­n­avirus out­break in Trinidad and To­ba­go.

Health Min­is­ter Ter­rence Deyals­ingh will be tak­ing a note to Cab­i­net con­cern­ing how to deal with the pos­si­bil­i­ty. He al­so will be ask­ing for the cre­ation of an ear­ly warn­ing sys­tem con­cern­ing health epi­demics for this coun­try, as well as rec­om­mend­ing a re­gion-wide ear­ly warn­ing sys­tem for CARI­COM, es­pe­cial­ly in light of the re­cent coro­n­avirus scare in Ja­maica, ear­li­er this week.

Trin­bag­o­ni­ans con­cerned

Mean­while, as the Wuhan coro­n­avirus makes its way around the globe—re­port­ed­ly present in at least 15 coun­tries—many Trin­bag­on­ian cit­i­zens have be­gun to say that we may need to re-think host­ing T&T Car­ni­val 2020.

This, in the wake of news that it might be the best and most suc­cess­ful stag­ing of the event ever, with all ma­jor ho­tels in the cap­i­tal booked to ca­pac­i­ty.

Cit­i­zens are be­gin­ning to won­der if Gov­ern­ment should post­pone Car­ni­val—if not call it off al­to­geth­er—rather than in­creas­ing the risk of coro­n­avirus show­ing up here, with all the vis­i­tors booked to en­ter our shores.

Here’s what a few of you had to say on the is­sue:

Male caller: “We may just have to pause Car­ni­val be­cause we can’t af­ford an out­break here. That is go­ing to be a se­ri­ous de­ci­sion and not many peo­ple are go­ing to like it, but at the end of the day, health comes first. Re­mem­ber, this is a virus that they don’t even have a cure yet.”

Fe­male caller: “There were so many virus­es go­ing around in 2019. One year of can­celling car­ni­val would not af­fect us. Car­ni­val will grow and we will have oth­er Car­ni­vals. Our health is im­por­tant. The pop­u­la­tion’s health is im­por­tant. So, I think they should can­cel car­ni­val.”

Male caller: “I think Gov­ern­ment should act now and post­pone Car­ni­val. We al­so have to look at peo­ple com­ing in to Trinidad via South Amer­i­ca, and en­sure there are prop­er checks and bal­ances in place to screen every­one.”

Fe­male caller: “I don’t think they should can­cel Car­ni­val; I think they should post­pone Car­ni­val. Let’s see if they get an an­tivirus vac­cine for the coro­n­avirus, and then we can have the Car­ni­val. So in case some­thing hap­pens, we have the an­tivirus to give the peo­ple.”

Fe­male caller: “They re­al­ly should can­cel the Car­ni­val, be­cause they can­not look at mon­ey and all these things and not study our health. I think we should pe­ti­tion for them to can­cel.”

Male caller: “I think it’s not the first time they would have can­celled Car­ni­val. I think many years ago we post­poned Car­ni­val be­cause of a po­lio out­break. It’s not the end of the world. I think it’s the sen­si­ble thing to do."

Not an easy de­ci­sion to make

How­ev­er, can­celling or even post­pon­ing T&T Car­ni­val 2020 will be an ex­pen­sive propo­si­tion, as Lead Ed­i­tor on Guardian Me­dia’s Busi­ness Desk, Cur­tis Williams, ex­plains.

He points out that Car­ni­val is the high point of Trinidad’s tourism sea­son.

Cur­tis Williams says in ad­di­tion to hote­liers be­ing hit hard—all of whom are re­port­ing 100 per­cent oc­cu­pan­cy rates this year—every­one con­nect­ed to the car­ni­val in­dus­try will be hurt­ing too.

“The air­lines, the en­ter­tain­ers, the num­ber of peo­ple in­volved in lo­gis­tics, cater­ers, fete pro­mot­ers… It’s go­ing to hurt many peo­ple,” he ob­serves. “We for­get that Car­ni­val is a bil­lion dol­lar in­dus­try, where peo­ple have in­vest­ed a great deal of mon­ey and have sig­nif­i­cant re­turns. There are peo­ple who live their en­tire year based on what they do dur­ing Trinidad and To­ba­go Car­ni­val,” he points out.

He adds: “Can­celling or post­pon­ing Car­ni­val is not some­thing to be un­der­tak­en light­ly, nor should the coro­n­avirus be tak­en light­ly, ei­ther.”

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Sto­ry by NEWS DESK