Rhon­dor Dowlat-Ros­tant

Ten peo­ple were ar­rest­ed and charged yes­ter­day for breach­ing the Pub­lic Health Or­di­nance Reg­u­la­tions when they were found bathing in the wa­ters off Bay­side Tow­ers in Co­corite.

The penal­ty for such an of­fence is a $50,000 fine and six months in prison.

The peo­ple, who were tak­en to the Four Roads Po­lice Sta­tion, were charged in ac­cor­dance with Sec­tion 3 (1) (d) of the Pub­lic Health (2019 Nov­el Coro­n­avirus (2019-nCov)(No 14) Reg­u­la­tions 2020 which states, that dur­ing the spec­i­fied pe­ri­od, a per­son shall not, with­out rea­son­able jus­ti­fi­ca­tion, “be found at or in any beach, riv­er, stream, pond, spring, or sim­i­lar body of wa­ter, un­less the pres­ence of that per­son is es­sen­tial for the car­ry­ing out or pro­vi­sion of a ser­vice spec­i­fied.”

The ar­rest of the group fol­lowed a sim­i­lar in­ci­dent on April 19 when 27 per­sons were de­tained by po­lice, head­ed by Com­mis­sion­er Grif­fith, bathing in the wa­ters off Sea Lots, Port-of-Spain.

Grif­fith said he re­ceived in­for­ma­tion from the pub­lic and di­rect­ed of­fi­cers to the area.

The CoP spoke to the per­sons, warned them, and lat­er re­leased every­one with­out charge.

Com­mis­sion­er Grif­fith says that when the Sea Lots in­ci­dent took place, there were per­sons who were cry­ing at the way the Po­lice han­dled that in­ci­dent and that the chil­dren were put to lie on the ground. He point­ed out these so-called ex­perts did not like how the mat­ter was han­dled. He made it quite clear that the role of the po­lice is to save lives at a time when the in­vis­i­ble COVID-19 virus is still threat­en­ing the cit­i­zens of this coun­try.

The CoP thanked mem­bers of the pub­lic for send­ing him the in­for­ma­tion of the per­sons bathing in the wa­ter off Bay­side Tow­ers.