The Par­lia­ment of Trinidad and To­ba­go has im­ple­ment­ed more strin­gent mea­sures to help re­duce the spread of COVID-19 among staff and Par­lia­men­tar­i­ans, alike.

In an of­fi­cial state­ment is­sued to­day, the Par­lia­ment Sec­re­tari­at an­nounced sev­er­al so­cial dis­tanc­ing mea­sures in­clud­ing, among oth­ers: new seat­ing arrange­ments for Par­lia­men­tar­i­ans, the wear­ing of face masks, lim­its on the num­bers of me­dia per­son­nel al­lowed in the premis­es to cov­er Par­lia­men­tary pro­ceed­ings, and no more ac­cess to the precincts by the gen­er­al pub­lic.

The fol­low­ing is the full text of the state­ment from the Par­lia­ment Sec­re­tari­at on the new mea­sures.

COVID 19 MEA­SURES IM­PLE­MENT­ED AT THE PAR­LIA­MENT

Dear me­dia col­leagues,

As you are aware, the on­go­ing COVID-19 pan­dem­ic has forced both lo­cal and in­ter­na­tion­al bod­ies to im­ple­ment cer­tain re­stric­tions to en­sure staff and mem­bers of the pub­lic face as lit­tle ex­po­sure to this dread­ed virus as pos­si­ble. The Par­lia­ment of Trinidad and To­ba­go is not ex­empt and as such has de­cid­ed to put the fol­low­ing mea­sures in place for the good of all who ac­cess our precincts.

1. So­cial dis­tanc­ing mea­sures for Mem­bers of Par­lia­ment: some Mem­bers will be seat­ed in the Cham­bers while oth­ers will be seat­ed in meet­ing rooms through­out the Par­lia­men­tary Com­plex with ac­cess to tele­vi­sion screens to view the pro­ceed­ings. If a vote is called for, those Mem­bers not seat­ed in the Cham­ber will be al­lowed a few min­utes to get to the Cham­ber where they will cast their vote then re­turn to their meet­ing rooms.

2. The num­ber of me­dia per­son­nel al­lowed in the Me­dia Gal­leries will be lim­it­ed to five (5).

3. Mem­bers of the me­dia will be re­quired to wear a face mask at all times while at the Par­lia­men­tary Com­plex.

4. Face masks should be of a dark colour that will not cause any dis­trac­tion.

5. Mem­bers of the pub­lic are now asked to tune in to sit­tings and com­mit­tee meet­ings on the Par­lia­ment Chan­nel, Par­lia­ment Ra­dio 105.5 FM or via our YouTube Chan­nel, Par­lView as ac­cess to the Par­lia­men­tary precincts will not be grant­ed to the pub­lic at this time.

We do re­gret any in­con­ve­nience that will be caused by these de­ci­sions and trust that you will con­tin­ue to work with us to en­sure the safe­ty of all con­cerned.