Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley has ad­vised the na­tion of new mea­sures to be im­ple­ment­ed, as Trinidad and To­ba­go ramps up its de­fence against COVID-19.

Dr Row­ley said the coun­try was fac­ing a ma­jor cri­sis and emer­gency, and that it was im­por­tant that this coun­try “dis­con­nect” from the rest of the world, in or­der to min­i­mize the spread of the Coro­n­avirus, which has now be­come a glob­al pan­dem­ic.

Two sub-Com­mit­tees of Cab­i­net have been set up to over­see the mea­sures to be im­ple­ment­ed.

Among the mea­sures the PM an­nounced a short while ago:

• T&T’s bor­ders will be closed from mid­night on Tues­day 17 March, 2020.

• Cit­i­zens from oth­er coun­tries will not be al­lowed to en­ter T&T, ex­cept un­der ex­cep­tion­al con­di­tions. Health care pro­fes­sion­als will re­ceive ex­emp­tions.

• Gov­ern­ment will bring home 75-plus cit­i­zens who are in oth­er Caribbean coun­tries, at present.

• CAL’s op­er­a­tions will shut down for the next 14 days, ex­cept for help­ing T&T na­tion­al’s re­turn home. CAL will re­ceive Gov­ern­ment sup­port to en­sure the air­line re­mains vi­able af­ter the out­break is over.

• Pan­dem­ic leave will be im­ple­ment­ed.

• Schools will be closed un­til 20th April, 2020.

• Bars will be closed.

• Gath­er­ings of 25 or more per­sons must be dis­con­tin­ued.

• Gov­ern­ment will dip in­to the Her­itage and Sta­bil­i­sa­tion Fund to ac­cess monies to en­sure the coun­try con­tin­ues to re­ceive food and phar­ma­ceu­ti­cals. It al­so will shore up its so­cial pro­grammes, name­ly food cards and oth­er grants, to en­sure vul­ner­a­ble per­sons will have the nec­es­sary sup­port.

The Prime Min­is­ter ap­pealed to cit­i­zens to take es­pe­cial care of se­nior cit­i­zens in the midst, who are the per­sons most vul­ner­a­ble to de­vel­op­ing se­ri­ous health com­pli­ca­tions from COVID-19.

He says Gov­ern­ment is do­ing all it pos­si­bly can to en­sure no cit­i­zen is left be­hind.