Some work­ers are be­ing sent home as busi­ness places close to pre­vent the fur­ther spread of COVID-19, the Siparia Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tion ex­pects so see an in­crease in the num­ber of ven­dors.

Chair­man of the cor­po­ra­tion Al­der­man Di­nesh Sankers­ingh, told Guardian Me­dia that vend­ing is seen as a so­lu­tion and not a prob­lem once it is done with­in the con­fines of the law.

Speak­ing at his High Street of­fice, Sankers­ingh said the area saw an in­crease of ven­dors when Petrotrin fold­ed its op­er­a­tions last year. He said the cor­po­ra­tion was try­ing to cre­ate more mar­ket space for ven­dors.

When asked if the Mu­nic­i­pal Po­lice were re­mov­ing ven­dors from the streets, he said the po­lice were sim­ply try­ing to have per­sons com­ply with the law. How­ev­er Sankers­ingh said chang­ing eco­nom­ic times would see the cor­po­ra­tion hav­ing to make ad­just­ments to make more spaces avail­able for ven­dors so peo­ple can earn a liv­ing.

He said Siparia was se­vere­ly hit by the clo­sure of Petrotrin that have shoved many peo­ple on the bread­line.

“We are try­ing to source ham­pers and re­sources for those who are se­vere­ly af­fect­ed, the aged and those who are shut-in and can­not go out.”

Sankers­ingh said the Siparia Fest and the an­nu­al La Div­ina Pas­to­ra or Sipari Ki Mai cel­e­bra­tions have been can­celled be­cause of COVID-19.

He said the cor­po­ra­tion has heard re­ports that mi­grants from Venezuela are still en­ter­ing T&T through gaps in the bor­der and he wants those com­ing in to be screened for the virus so that the au­thor­i­ties can bet­ter deal with this prob­lem.