PE­TER CHRISTO­PHER

pe­ter.christo­pher@guardian.co.tt

Min­is­ter of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Stu­art Young says a diplo­mat­ic note has been sent to Bar­ba­dos of­fi­cials con­cern­ing COVID-19 test­ing for Trinidad and To­ba­go na­tion­als who have been in that coun­try for the past two weeks, as a po­ten­tial first step to­wards get­ting them back home.

Young al­so yes­ter­day con­firmed that T&T had sent test­ing kits to Bar­ba­dos so that the 35 T&T na­tion­als could be test­ed. If their tests are neg­a­tive, Young said they will take ad­vice from med­ical ex­perts con­cern­ing the next step. He said even if the T&T na­tion­als test neg­a­tive in Bar­ba­dos, the Gov­ern­ment will have to be care­ful how they han­dle the sit­u­a­tion.

“The worst thing that can hap­pen is they then go ..., if I hope they test neg­a­tive com­ing out of their manda­to­ry quar­an­tine and they re-en­gage with per­sons in pub­lic or per­sons who may have the COVID-19 virus and then they can be con­t­a­m­i­nat­ed all over again,” he said.

He said sim­i­lar­ly, he had been pro­vid­ed with ad­dress­es for 33 Trinidad and To­ba­go na­tion­als in Suri­name and has asked that of­fi­cials there have them test­ed be­fore any fur­ther arrange­ments can be made con­cern­ing their repa­tri­a­tion.

Young once again ad­vised those strand­ed in Mar­gari­ta, Venezuela, to con­tact the T&T Em­bassy in Cara­cas.

How­ev­er, he not­ed that moves to re­turn cit­i­zens home would be dif­fi­cult con­sid­er­ing that all of these coun­tries have al­so closed their bor­ders. If arrange­ments are made to bring them back to this coun­try, a quar­an­tine pro­ce­dure sim­i­lar to that used for re­turn­ing cit­i­zens from the Guade­loupe cruise may be used, Young said.

Young al­so served a warn­ing to fish­er­men, re­mind­ing them that the closed bor­ders al­so meant mar­itime bor­ders are closed as well.

“We had our first sting op­er­a­tion on that over the week­end and we picked up some per­sons pos­ing as fish­er­men to go across the bor­der to trade in cer­tain items. They are go­ing to be charged un­der these reg­u­la­tions and sub­ject to the full brunt of the law,” said Young.

“Please stay with­in our bor­ders. You may con­tin­ue your fish­ing with­in our sea bor­ders.”

Young al­so clar­i­fied that wine mer­chants and liquor marts, even if they sold oth­er food items, would be re­quired to be closed un­til April 30 as well.

“Spir­it re­tail­er li­cens­es, wine re­tail­er li­cens­es, restau­rant li­cens­es or wine mer­chant li­cens­es, un­der the Liquor Li­cense Act, your premis­es with re­spect to such li­cens­es are to be closed for op­er­a­tion up un­til the 30th of April, “ he said.