derek.achong@guardian.co.tt
Police officers probing a passenger who was deemed the country’s first case of the Omicron variant of the COVID-19 virus are working to complete their investigation.
Contacted yesterday, police sources said that the investigation had reached an advanced stage with investigators expected to complete it and consult with the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) later this week.
Guardian Media understands that after being released from quarantine at the Caura Hospital, the patient, who identified herself as Jonelle John to Guardian Media, went to the Maloney Police Station with her attorney Siddiq Manzano to give a series of statements on Saturday.
John reportedly returned to the station the following day to have the statements authenticated by a Justice of the Peace.
In an exclusive interview with Guardian Media, last week, John stated that she was fully vaccinated with the AstraZeneca vaccine when she left this country to travel to New York late last year.
John claimed that she was under the impression that a negative rapid test would allow her to enter T&T but she still took two PCR tests the day before her return flight.
She claimed that the results of the PCR tests were not available when she was checking in to the Copa Airlines flight to Panama and she was still allowed to board after showing a negative rapid test.
John claimed that officials in Panama did not request any test results and she was allowed to board a connecting flight to Trinidad.
She said that when she arrived at the Piarco International Airport around 1 am, she was told that she had to show a negative PCR test to be allowed entry.
John said she was able to open her email and realised that she had received a positive result from one of the PCR tests she took before leaving New York.
John did a PCR test at the airport, which also returned with a positive result.
“That said evening I also got my result via email for the third test I did in New York and that test showed not detected,” she said.
“From New York, I had a rapid test showing negative, at Piarco I had a PCR test showing positive and have two other PCR tests from New York with negative and positive results, they told me that the results at Piarco supersede the other tests I took in New York,” she added.
John claimed that she was not initially informed that she had the Omicron variant and only deduced such after receiving calls from friends and relatives, who were expecting her back in the country and heard media reports of the arrival of the variant via a traveller from New York, who fit her description.
“I walked out of isolation at the hospital with tears in my eyes asking the nurses if it was me detected with Omicron, I asked them that from the news it sounds as if the person was me,” she said.
“A nurse who carried me back in the room told me that I have the Omicron variant. I asked why this reached out to the news and I was not even aware that I was infected with the variant and I cried,” she added.
The police are probing if the passenger committed any breach of this country’s travel protocols.