The Min­istry of Health has pro­vid­ed fur­ther clar­i­fi­ca­tion on the re­vised reg­u­la­tions cov­er­ing the con­duct of in-per­son re­li­gious meet­ings or ser­vices, in­clud­ing chris­ten­ings and bap­tisms.

The fol­low­ing is the of­fi­cial state­ment is­sued by the Min­istry on the mat­ter…

State­ment from the Ho­n­ourable Ter­rence Deyals­ingh, Min­is­ter of Health
on the Con­duct of Re­li­gious Meet­ings or Ser­vices and Chris­ten­ings and Bap­tisms In Per­son
by Re­li­gious or Ec­cle­si­as­ti­cal Or­gan­i­sa­tions — State­ment No. 10

Port of Spain, 4th Sep­tem­ber 2021: Re­li­gious or Ec­cle­si­as­ti­cal Or­gan­i­sa­tions will be al­lowed to con­duct re­li­gious meet­ings or ser­vices and chris­ten­ings and bap­tisms in per­son.

Pur­suant to Reg­u­la­tion 3(10)(ao) of the Emer­gency Pow­ers (No. 2) Reg­u­la­tions, 2021, with ef­fect from Mon­day 6th Sep­tem­ber 2021, the Min­is­ter of Health here­by au­tho­ris­es re­li­gious or ec­cle­si­as­ti­cal or­gan­i­sa­tions, to con­duct:

1. Re­li­gious meet­ings or ser­vices in per­son, where the gath­er­ing at any place used for that pur­pose does not ex­ceed twen­ty-five per­cent of the al­lowed ca­pac­i­ty of the place and the re­li­gious meet­ings or ser­vices do not ex­ceed one hour,

2. Chris­ten­ings and bap­tisms in per­son, where the gath­er­ing at any place used for that pur­pose does not ex­ceed ten per­sons and the chris­ten­ings and bap­tisms do not ex­ceed one hour, UN­TIL FUR­THER NO­TICE, Mon­day through Sun­day.

Re­li­gious or Ec­cle­si­as­ti­cal Or­gan­i­sa­tions are re­mind­ed that, as pro­vid­ed at Reg­u­la­tion 3(5) of the Emer­gency Pow­ers (No. 2) Reg­u­la­tions, 2021, they may con­tin­ue to con­duct fu­ner­al ser­vices and wed­ding ser­vices in per­son, where the gath­er­ing of per­sons at any place used for that pur­pose does not ex­ceed ten per­sons.

Re­li­gious or Ec­cle­si­as­ti­cal Or­gan­i­sa­tions and their Mem­bers are ad­vised to com­ply strict­ly with the (oth­er) le­gal re­quire­ments of the Emer­gency Pow­ers (No. 2) Reg­u­la­tions, 2021, the le­gal re­quire­ments of the Pub­lic Health [2019 Nov­el Coro­n­avirus (2019-nCoV)] (No. 18) Reg­u­la­tions, 2021 and the pub­lic health guide­lines.

Au­tho­riza­tions grant­ed by the Min­is­ter of Health pur­suant to State­ments 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9 re­main valid.

The Min­istry of Health will con­tin­ue to mon­i­tor this de­vel­op­ment and take steps to safe­guard the health of the pop­u­la­tion.