JavaScript is disabled in your web browser or browser is too old to support JavaScript. Today almost all web pages contain JavaScript, a scripting programming language that runs on visitor's web browser. It makes web pages functional for specific purposes and if disabled for some reason, the content or the functionality of the web page can be limited or unavailable.

Sunday, July 6, 2025

T&T sends test kits for Trinis in Barbados

by

Peter Christopher
1915 days ago
20200407
National Security Minister Stuart Young.

National Security Minister Stuart Young.

SHIRLEY BAHADUR

pe­ter.christo­pher@guardian.co.tt

Min­is­ter of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Stu­art Young says a diplo­mat­ic note has been sent to Bar­ba­dos of­fi­cials con­cern­ing COVID-19 test­ing for Trinidad and To­ba­go na­tion­als who have been in that coun­try for the past two weeks, as a po­ten­tial first step to­wards get­ting them back home.

Young al­so yes­ter­day con­firmed that T&T had sent test­ing kits to Bar­ba­dos so that the 35 T&T na­tion­als could be test­ed. If their tests are neg­a­tive, Young said they will take ad­vice from med­ical ex­perts con­cern­ing the next step. He said even if the T&T na­tion­als test neg­a­tive in Bar­ba­dos, the Gov­ern­ment will have to be care­ful how they han­dle the sit­u­a­tion.

“The worst thing that can hap­pen is they then go ..., if I hope they test neg­a­tive com­ing out of their manda­to­ry quar­an­tine and they re-en­gage with per­sons in pub­lic or per­sons who may have the COVID-19 virus and then they can be con­t­a­m­i­nat­ed all over again,” he said.

He said sim­i­lar­ly, he had been pro­vid­ed with ad­dress­es for 33 Trinidad and To­ba­go na­tion­als in Suri­name and has asked that of­fi­cials there have them test­ed be­fore any fur­ther arrange­ments can be made con­cern­ing their repa­tri­a­tion.

Young once again ad­vised those strand­ed in Mar­gari­ta, Venezuela, to con­tact the T&T Em­bassy in Cara­cas.

How­ev­er, he not­ed that moves to re­turn cit­i­zens home would be dif­fi­cult con­sid­er­ing that all of these coun­tries have al­so closed their bor­ders. If arrange­ments are made to bring them back to this coun­try, a quar­an­tine pro­ce­dure sim­i­lar to that used for re­turn­ing cit­i­zens from the Guade­loupe cruise may be used, Young said.

Young al­so served a warn­ing to fish­er­men, re­mind­ing them that the closed bor­ders al­so meant mar­itime bor­ders are closed as well.

“We had our first sting op­er­a­tion on that over the week­end and we picked up some per­sons pos­ing as fish­er­men to go across the bor­der to trade in cer­tain items. They are go­ing to be charged un­der these reg­u­la­tions and sub­ject to the full brunt of the law,” said Young.

“Please stay with­in our bor­ders. You may con­tin­ue your fish­ing with­in our sea bor­ders.”

Young al­so clar­i­fied that wine mer­chants and liquor marts, even if they sold oth­er food items, would be re­quired to be closed un­til April 30 as well.

“Spir­it re­tail­er li­cens­es, wine re­tail­er li­cens­es, restau­rant li­cens­es or wine mer­chant li­cens­es, un­der the Liquor Li­cense Act, your premis­es with re­spect to such li­cens­es are to be closed for op­er­a­tion up un­til the 30th of April, “ he said.

COVID-19


Related articles

Sponsored

Weather

PORT OF SPAIN WEATHER

Sponsored