Sto­ry by RHON­DOR DOWLAT-ROS­TANT

Fol­low­ing the tem­po­rary clo­sure of the Arou­ca Po­lice Sta­tion, there are re­ports that more COVID-19 scares have oc­curred at two oth­er po­lice sta­tions—in San­gre Grande and San Fer­nan­do.

Of­fi­cers at the south sta­tion are said to be very con­cerned; how­ev­er, pre­cau­tion­ary mea­sures are re­port­ed to be in place.

The sit­u­a­tion in San Fer­nan­do

Guardian Me­dia un­der­stands that a po­lice of­fi­cer re­port­ed to du­ty last week dis­play­ing flu-like symp­toms. He went to the hos­pi­tal and was told to quar­an­tine him­self.

It is al­leged that the of­fi­cer con­tact­ed the Min­istry of Health ear­li­er this week and was told that a team will con­tact him. How­ev­er, up to press time, the of­fi­cer re­port­ed­ly was still wait­ing on the team to get him­self test­ed.

Mean­while, se­nior po­lice of­fi­cers at the San Fer­nan­do Po­lice Sta­tion are fear­ful and say they would like the en­tire staff there to be equipped with the re­quired Per­son­al Pro­tec­tive Equip­ment (PPE), as well as have the sta­tion prop­er­ly sani­tised.

Asked if the of­fi­cer had a trav­el his­to­ry, the se­nior said "no" but could not say who the of­fi­cer may have come in con­tact with.

Scare at San­gre Grande Po­lice Sta­tion

On Thurs­day night, of­fi­cers at the San­gre Grande po­lice sta­tion said a woman po­lice con­sta­ble was told to self-quar­an­tine as she be­gan to show signs of the flu. Se­nior of­fi­cers said her hus­band had re­turned re­cent­ly from a trip abroad.

"The woman po­lice of­fi­cer have been re­port­ing for du­ty reg­u­lar since and have re­cent­ly de­vel­oped flu like symp­toms,” sources close to the sta­tion said. “The of­fi­cers are very much con­cerned now and most like­ly they will al­so have to go in­to self-quar­an­tine. We are wait­ing to see what's next."

Scare at Arou­ca Po­lice Sta­tion

On Thurs­day 26 March, the Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice or­dered that the Arou­ca Po­lice Sta­tion be shut-down, as an of­fi­cer with re­cent trav­el his­to­ry be­gan dis­play­ing symp­toms of COVID-19. That of­fi­cer re­port­ed for du­ty and now all of­fi­cers as­signed at that po­lice sta­tion have been told to self-quar­an­tine.

A se­nior of­fi­cer con­firmed that the of­fi­cer had a run­ny nose and sore throat.

At about 1:10 am on Thurs­day, the COVID-19 hot­line was con­tact­ed, and of­fi­cials there in­struct­ed that the of­fi­cer leave the sta­tion and go in­to self-quar­an­tine. He was told that if any fur­ther symp­toms de­vel­oped with­in the next sev­en days, he would have to un­der­go test­ing for COVID-19.

Guardian Me­dia un­der­stands the Arou­ca Po­lice Sta­tion was san­i­tized by the oth­er of­fi­cers on du­ty. How­ev­er, there were no masks or any gloves avail­able, ac­cord­ing to a po­lice source.

The source said the of­fi­cers were sub­se­quent­ly asked to con­tact of­fi­cers from the Ari­ma Po­lice Sta­tion so that they can go to the Ari­ma Dis­trict Hos­pi­tal and at­tempt to get some gloves and masks for the of­fi­cers who were still at the Arou­ca Po­lice Sta­tion.

In an im­me­di­ate re­sponse, Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice, Gary Grif­fith or­dered the clo­sure of the Arou­ca Po­lice Sta­tion.

In a news re­lease, Grif­fith said the of­fi­cer had left the coun­try on March 4 with­out the nec­es­sary ap­proval and knowl­edge and went to St Maarten.

"He re­turned to Trinidad on March 7 and in­stead of go­ing in­to self-quar­an­tine, re­turned to work the fol­low­ing day.  The of­fi­cer de­vel­oped the flu-like symp­toms this week and as a pre­cau­tion­ary mea­sure, all of­fi­cers of the Arou­ca Po­lice Sta­tion were or­dered to go on self-quar­an­tine, " Grif­fith said.

Po­lice union calls for PPE

Out­side the Arou­ca Po­lice Sta­tion on Thurs­day, sev­er­al of­fi­cers com­plained that there were no PPEs pro­vid­ed for them.

Pres­i­dent of the T&T Po­lice Ser­vice So­cial and Wel­fare As­so­ci­a­tion, In­spec­tor Gideon Dick­son ad­mit­ted that there isn't suf­fi­cient PPE for of­fi­cers and called on cor­po­rate T&T to part­ner with the po­lice ser­vice in pro­vid­ing PPE for of­fi­cers.

He al­so said a re­quest was sent to the Min­istry of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty ask­ing for help with re­spect to the sup­ply of PPE as well.

Dick­son said a pro­to­col pol­i­cy was put out for of­fi­cers and urged them to be guid­ed by it.

He al­so ap­pealed to of­fi­cers to prac­tice prop­er hy­giene.

"I'm al­so ask­ing mem­bers of the pub­lic to on­ly make their way to any po­lice sta­tion if deemed ab­solute­ly nec­es­sary," Dick­son said.

With re­gards to the sit­u­a­tion at the San Fer­nan­do Po­lice Sta­tion, Dick­son said he was not aware but as­sured that he will look in­to the sit­u­a­tion im­me­di­ate­ly.