The Min­istry of Health has is­sued an ad­vi­so­ry out­lin­ing new pro­to­cols to treat with the new­ly iden­ti­fied strain of COVID-19, which has pre­sent­ed in the Unit­ed King­dom (UK).

In the ad­vi­so­ry, the Min­istry re­it­er­ates the need for a neg­a­tive PCR test three days be­fore trav­el­ling, as well as a manda­to­ry 14-day quar­an­tine pe­ri­od for those en­ter­ing Trinidad and To­ba­go from the UK.

The full text of the ad­vi­so­ry fol­lows…

Min­istry of Health ad­vis­es on New Pro­to­cols to treat with New Strain of COVID-19

Port-of-Spain, De­cem­ber 21, 2020 — The Min­istry of Health has not­ed with great con­cern the re­cent de­vel­op­ments an­nounced by the Pan-Amer­i­can Health Or­ga­ni­za­tion / World Health Or­ga­ni­za­tion re­lat­ing to a new strain of the COVID-19 virus in the UK. 

The fol­low­ing up­dat­ed pro­to­cols will now ap­ply to per­sons com­ing from the Unit­ed King­dom in­to Trinidad and To­ba­go (where the time be­tween the date of de­par­ture and the date of ar­rival in­to Trinidad and To­ba­go is 14 days or less):

1.  A neg­a­tive PCR test with­in 72 hrs pri­or to trav­el­ling (al­so nec­es­sary for all per­sons en­ter­ing Trinidad and To­ba­go at this time).

2.  A manda­to­ry 14-day quar­an­tine pe­ri­od to be spent in a state or state su­per­vised fa­cil­i­ty.

This new pro­to­col de­vi­ates from the cur­rent quar­an­tine pe­ri­od to be served by per­sons en­ter­ing the coun­try from oth­er high-risk coun­tries which present­ly re­mains, 7 days in state or state su­per­vised quar­an­tine fol­lowed by 7 days home quar­an­tine.

All oth­er pro­to­cols as it re­lates to en­try in­to Trinidad and To­ba­go re­main the same at this time. This is to en­sure that con­tin­ued pro­tec­tion is af­ford­ed to the mem­bers of the pub­lic.

The Min­istry al­so takes the op­por­tu­ni­ty to re­mind the pop­u­la­tion to con­tin­ue fol­low­ing the pub­lic health mea­sures. Fur­ther up­dates will be giv­en to the pop­u­la­tion as the sit­u­a­tion de­vel­ops and new in­for­ma­tion comes to hand.

Please en­sure that you source your in­for­ma­tion on­ly from of­fi­cial sources, such as the Min­istry of Health and the Of­fice of the Prime Min­is­ter-Com­mu­ni­ca­tions.