The Min­istry of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty has re­leased an ex­emp­tion pol­i­cy for per­sons en­ter­ing Trinidad and To­ba­go dur­ing this time.

The pol­i­cy was for­mu­lat­ed in col­lab­o­ra­tion with the Min­istry of Health.

The fol­low­ing is a press re­lease from the Min­istry of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty:

The Min­istry of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty (MNS) and the Min­istry of Health (MOH) have for­mu­lat­ed the fol­low­ing, as the ex­emp­tion pol­i­cy for per­sons en­ter­ing Trinidad and To­ba­go un­der the cir­cum­stances of the cur­rent pan­dem­ic.

Coun­tries will be cat­e­gorised as fol­lows: (1) High/ Medi­um Risk and (2) Low Risk.

The Min­istry of Health (MOH) will use the World Health Or­ga­ni­za­tion (WHO) Coun­try cat­e­gories to de­ter­mine which coun­try is high/medi­um risk (Clus­ter/ Com­mu­ni­ty spread) and which is low risk (Nil/ Spo­radic spread).

With re­spect to per­sons re­turn­ing from Low-Risk coun­tries the fol­low­ing ap­plies:

Must not have been in a high/ medi­um risk coun­try for 14 days pri­or to ar­riv­ing in Trinidad and To­ba­go via a low-risk coun­try;

Must pro­duce a neg­a­tive PCR COVID-19 test re­sult for the 72 hours be­fore en­ter­ing Trinidad and To­ba­go; and

Once one (1) and two (2) above are ful­filled, the per­son re­turn­ing will be re­quired to agree (via sign­ing a form) to home quar­an­tine for 14 days af­ter ar­riv­ing in Trinidad and To­ba­go.

With re­spect to per­sons re­turn­ing from High/Medi­um risk coun­tries the fol­low­ing ap­plies:

Will be state quar­an­tined for 7 days up­on ar­rival in Trinidad and To­ba­go (down from the pre­vi­ous 14 days);

Will be swabbed with­in 24 hours of ar­rival in­to Trinidad and To­ba­go; – Once the per­son does not test pos­i­tive and does not present symp­toms of COVID-19 with­in the 7 day pe­ri­od he/she will be re­quired to agree (via sign­ing a form) that he/she will home quar­an­tine for the next 7 days.

Pri­or to be­ing al­lowed to home quar­an­tine, he/ she will be swabbed again; If the per­son is pos­i­tive for COVID-19 and does not re­quire hos­pi­tal­i­sa­tion it will be up to the Chief Med­ical Of­fi­cer (CMO), Min­istry of Health to ei­ther hos­pi­talise the in­di­vid­ual or al­low the in­di­vid­ual to quar­an­tine at home for the re­main­der pe­ri­od as de­ter­mined by the CMO (Min­istry of Health);

If the per­son re­quires hos­pi­tal­i­sa­tion he/she will be hos­pi­talised; – The CMO (Min­istry of Health) may send a per­son to a step down fa­cil­i­ty af­ter the first 7 days for ob­ser­va­tion, if so de­ter­mined. The fol­low­ing fa­cil­i­ties will be used for state quar­an­tine for the 7 day pe­ri­od, pre­vi­ous­ly it was for a 14 day pe­ri­od­Debe Cam­pus; 2. Home of Foot­ball; 3. Paria Ho­tel; and 4. Cas­ca­dia Ho­tel (be­ing con­firmed by Min­istry of Health).

We will be us­ing the fol­low­ing as state-su­per­vised quar­an­tine fa­cil­i­ties (where per­sons may pay for the 7 days’ quar­an­tine time)Chan­cel­lor Ho­tel; and 2. Re­gent Star Ho­tel.

Those seek­ing ex­emp­tions to en­ter Trinidad and To­ba­go should send their ap­pli­ca­tions and bio da­ta pages of their pass­ports to:- trav­elex­emp­tion@mns.gov.tt