Gary Hunt...
Sports minister.

The Pan Am Junior Championships, another major sporting event scheduled to be hosted in T&T looks likely to suffer the same faith as the now cancelled Caribbean Games (July 12 -19), the Senior Caribbean Squash Championships (August 13-24) and the Caribbean Football Union’s Youth Cup. The World Health Organisation (WHO) have reported 52,160 cases of the Influenza A H1N1 virus in 99 countries worldwide, with 231 deaths.

The championships would have been held in T&T from July 31 to August 2, just two weeks after the dates set for the Caribbean Games were cancelled at a press conference by Health Minister Jerry Narace and Sport and Youth Affairs Minister Gary Hunt, last Thursday. At that press conference it was indicated that cancellation was due to fears that the swine influenza pandemic may thrive in the atmosphere created by these major sporting event. “Participants, officials and guests attending the Games from other countries can be a source of additional infection for the population of T&T,” Narace said.

He drew reference to the recently concluded national volleyball tournament which was identified as the possible source of infection to T&T and Caribbean nationals. A member of the T&T men’s volleyball team tested positive for the virus. Eleven Surinamese players, participants of the same tournament, also tested positive on their return home. “Upon review of these cases and examination of the possible causes for this spread among the Suriname team, we believe that communal living must have been a main contributor to the team infection,” Narace said. He added that the age groups of the Caribbean athletes corresponded with the age group most affected by the current pandemic.

He said according to the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) model for wave of the influenza pandemic, the trend of increasing transmission would possibly continue for the next two to three months. “WHO has indicated that it is difficult to predict how many waves will occur and how long the pandemic will last,” Narace said. Over 45 countries, are down to attend the championships which could yielded more participants than expected for the Caribbean Games. Among the countries set to take part are USA, Chile, Canada, Mexico, Argentina and Jamaica. Mexico has seen the most fatalities from the virus, with 7,624 cases and 113 deaths. While WHO has reported the USA as having 21,449 cases and 87 deaths, Canada (5,710 cases, 13 deaths), Chile (4,315 cases and four deaths) and Argentina (918 cases and four deaths). The Americas has reported 36,046 according to WHO.