Camille McEach­nie

Ad­her­ence to COVID pro­to­cols was up­per­most on va­ca­tion­ers’ minds yes­ter­day as this coun­try’s COVID-19 fig­ures be­gin to rise.

For the sec­ond con­sec­u­tive year, East­er cel­e­bra­tions in To­ba­go are main­ly sea, sun, and sand.

The Goat races and East­er bon­net pa­rade at Buc­coo and Mt Pleas­ant have been can­celled be­cause of the pan­dem­ic.

Se­cu­ri­ty forces were out in full force de­spite one of­fi­cer at the Scar­bor­ough Hos­pi­tal con­tract­ing the dis­ease and some of his col­leagues quar­an­tined un­til their test re­sults re­turn, the TTPS said.

Act­ing In­spec­tor and TTPS To­ba­go Di­vi­sion’s Me­dia Am­bas­sador Ali­cia Pig­gott told Guardian Me­dia, “All COVID pro­to­cols were fol­lowed and there is no de­crease in se­cu­ri­ty on the is­land.”

On the beach­es, hun­dreds en­joyed the sea, sun and sand, in­clud­ing Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley’s wife Sharon Row­ley and oth­er fam­i­ly mem­bers.

Many beach­go­ers said as the in­ter­na­tion­al bor­ders are closed, To­ba­go is the next best bet.

Me­dia prac­ti­tion­er Pix­ie Du Coudray, said not many peo­ple can boast of hav­ing the priv­i­lege to vis­it a twin Is­land dur­ing the pan­dem­ic.

“It’s fab­u­lous that we can come to an is­land, there are a lot of peo­ple don’t have a get­away...we are for­tu­nate,” she told Guardian Me­dia.

An­oth­er vis­i­tor, Reyaz Ahamad, echoed sim­i­lar sen­ti­ments say­ing it’s “a won­der­ful op­por­tu­ni­ty” to vis­it with his fam­i­ly. “You can’t trav­el, so this is the best place to come,” he said.

As they en­joyed the beach, many said they are con­scious of the need to be re­spon­si­ble, so­cial dis­tance and wear masks when not in the wa­ter.

When Guardian Me­dia asked if they were sat­is­fied with oth­er vis­i­tors and tourism stake­hold­ers fol­low­ing COVID pro­to­cols, many said they feel safe by what they are see­ing.

Vis­i­tor Mit­sy St Rose said she saw peo­ple wear­ing their masks “and try­ing to be mind­ful of oth­ers’ per­son­al space.”

De­spite this, she is still was still ob­sessed with the pos­si­bil­i­ty that she might con­tract COVID.

“There are so many peo­ple around that you keep think­ing about COVID, and maybe that is not a bad thing, so you are al­ways con­scious of what you do,” St Rose added.

It is a sen­ti­ment echoed by Reyaz Ahamad.

“So far, since I have been here, every­body is tak­ing their pre­cau­tions, wear­ing masks so­cial dis­tanc­ing, even on the beach here, so­cial dis­tanc­ing is tak­ing place. Still, I am very aware of what could hap­pen, so my fam­i­ly and I are tak­ing pre­cau­tions,” he said.

Mean­while, not all beach­es were suit­able for bathing. In Lam­beau, Sar­gas­sum lined the beach.

And of course, no Good Fri­day is com­plete with­out a bobotie. In Ba­co­let, he was left un­beat­en with the cap­tion—Ju­das be­trayed Christ.