Police have recorded no breaches of the Public Health Regulations at rivers now that they are reopened to the public or at beaches with the two-hour time extension.
On Saturday, Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley announced these adjustments to the Public Health Regulations effective Monday—but with restrictions.
“Having accepted that we have to live with the virus, let us see how much we can do in the living safely and sensibly,” Rowley said on Saturday.
At these facilities, open from 5 am to 2 pm, there should be no gatherings in groups more than ten, no alcohol consumption, no loud music and at rivers, no fires.
Restrictions may have been the reason for the small crowd at Caura River yesterday, a popular liming day at the facility.
“The main feature mainly in the river is cooking,” Shafyiet Mohammed said.
Mohammed, a pensioner, said even with the restrictions he visited the river with his family, a trip that was long overdue especially for them who used to visit the river almost every week.
“That first dip was really nice,” he said.
Johnny Deonarine and his family had a similar reason for visiting the river yesterday.
“It not really as we would like to be to come and cook and lime and those sort of things but it still feel nice to come out and bring out the children and take a lil bathe,” he said.
Equipped with his cooler filled with non-alcoholic beverages and a cell phone playing music, Deonarine said he missed coming to the Caura River, not just for fun but for religious purposes as well.
“I am a Hindu and we had was to deal with some circumstances that we couldn’t come here,” he said.
Many at the river were okay with the 2 pm closure of the facility for now, with hopes of further extension as time goes by.
This optimism was not shared by some at the beach at Chaguaramas Boardwalk yesterday, who believed closing time should be later. Kenneth Harrialal said this would give working people an opportunity to visit beaches.
“We would prefer to go up to 6 o’clock which is quite reasonable,” he said.
Visually impaired Kyron Faria agreed with a later closing hour.
“Four o’clock is the better way you don’t have enough time and is one bus working down here,” he said.
However, his wife thinks two o’clock is fine.
At both facilities, officials asked citizens to obey the Public Health Regulations, something according to the Minister of Health Terrence Deaylsingh, tour operators will have to abide by as well.
On Monday, Kalpoo’s Bird Sanctuary Ibis Tours announced the resumption of tours, but they would have to conduct those at the allowed times.
“We considered all angles of this and we decided that as we are opening more and more things what degree of risk can we take and we felt at this time given the Omicron variant given the burden of the TTPS to manage these things we will go for both activities between the hours of 5 am and 2 pm,” he said.
Deyalisingh said he understand the concerns, but asked for patience.
