Two more peo­ple have test­ed pos­i­tive for COVID-19 in T&T.

The fol­low­ing is a state­ment by the Min­istry of Health.

As part of the na­tion­al dri­ve to safe­guard the health of the Trinidad and To­ba­go pop­u­la­tion in the face of the glob­al COVID-19 out­break, the Min­istry of Health con­tin­ues to pro­vide up-to-date in­for­ma­tion on the coun­try’s sta­tus in this re­gard.

As of the af­ter­noon of Sun­day, 29th March, 2020 the Min­istry re­ports the fol­low­ing:

Num­ber of sam­ples sub­mit­ted to the Caribbean Pub­lic Health Agency (CARPHA) for test­ing for COVID-19 525

Num­ber of sam­ples which have test­ed pos­i­tive 78

Num­ber of deaths 3

Num­ber of per­sons dis­charged 1

The Min­istry of Health pro­vides the fol­low­ing up­date:

· Two ad­di­tion­al pos­i­tive cas­es have been con­firmed.

o First con­firmed case – close con­tact of some­one who test­ed pos­i­tive for COVID-19.

o Sec­ond con­firmed case – pend­ing epi­demi­o­log­i­cal in­ves­ti­ga­tion.

Of the to­tal num­ber of pos­i­tive cas­es, 49 of these pos­i­tive cas­es came from the group of na­tion­als who re­cent­ly re­turned from a cruise:

· 46 pos­i­tive cas­es from the group of 68 na­tion­als who re­turned from the cruise to­geth­er

· 3 pos­i­tive cas­es from the group of na­tion­als who re­turned from the same cruise sep­a­rate­ly from the oth­er 68 na­tion­als.

The Min­istry of Health re­minds the pub­lic that plac­ing your hands on your face in­creas­es the risk of con­tract­ing the virus. The virus can trans­fer from your hands to your nose and mouth, and then en­ter your body. Pro­tect your­self by wash­ing your hands of­ten with soap and wa­ter or by us­ing an al­co­hol-based san­i­tiz­er that con­tains at least 60% al­co­hol, if soap and wa­ter are not avail­able.