A num­ber of peo­ple over­seas try­ing to make their way back to Trinidad and To­ba­go are at high risk af­ter be­ing ex­posed to sit­u­a­tions where they may be COVID-19 car­ri­ers, Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Min­is­ter Stu­art Young said yes­ter­day.

“We’re ask­ing peo­ple to be per­son­al­ly re­spon­si­ble and not ex­pose them­selves to oth­ers to pre­vent in­creas­ing the trans­mis­sion risk,” he added at yes­ter­day’s brief­ing where Gov­ern­ment urged a na­tion­al re­sponse to guide­lines to pre­vent COVID-19 spread. T&T al­ready has four cas­es.

Young said his min­istry will be look­ing to en­force Gov­ern­ment’s call for gath­er­ings to be lim­it­ed to 25 and un­der.

“But don’t let it come to an en­force­ment,” he urged.

On the 14-day ban on non-na­tion­als’ en­try, he said na­tion­als and those with per­ma­nent T&T res­i­den­cy who were en­ter­ing to the coun­try would have to state where they’re com­ing from. He said the ban will al­so ap­ply to yachties and ves­sels, in­clud­ing those from South Amer­i­ca. Car­go ships will be al­lowed, though crews won’t be al­lowed to dis­em­bark.

Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley had al­lud­ed to 75 na­tion­als re­port­ed­ly strand­ed on a cruise ship which had some COIVD-19 cas­es on it. Row­ley said if they found trans­port to get home, “...They’re home.”

Row­ley said T&T al­so had 100,000 na­tion­als in Brook­lyn and oth­ers in oth­er coun­tries and some want­ed to re­turn here.

Young said the 75 na­tion­als on the ship were near Guade­loupe or Mar­tinique and they had con­tact­ed him last Fri­day.

“The ju­ris­dic­tion to al­low them to leave the ship—where there have been COVID cas­es—are French au­thor­i­ties. We’re pre­pared to take con­trol of this sit­u­a­tion over these na­tion­als since they ar­rive here. Prepa­ra­tions are al­ready in place,” Young said.

Young al­so sug­gest­ed busi­ness places take a de­ci­sion to close for the next 14 days, as such ac­tions would stop virus spread.