RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

While most Trinida­di­ans heed­ed the COVID-19 re­stric­tions, some Venezue­lans ven­tured out of their homes and were ar­rest­ed by po­lice on Mon­day.

At Cuchawan Trace in Debe, pa­trolling of­fi­cers from the South­ern Di­vi­sion Task Force ar­rest­ed two un­doc­u­ment­ed Venezue­lans who were walk­ing along the SS Erin Road. They then went to a house along SS Erin Road and brought out a third Venezue­lan who was quizzed. The un­doc­u­ment­ed Venezue­lans were ex­pect­ed to be hand­ed over to the im­mi­gra­tion au­thor­i­ties.

Mean­while, some Venezue­lans were al­so seen work­ing on agri­cul­tur­al plots along Welling­ton Road.

Most busi­ness­es ex­cept for su­per­mar­kets, gas sta­tions and fruit stalls were open along the SS Erin Road. El­der­ly peo­ple were seen hob­bling to get last-minute items.

At the cor­ner of Su­chit Trace and SS Erin Road, wa­ter­mel­on ven­dor Dar­ren Ma­hase came out to sell.

Ma­hase said his un­cle spent $30,000 to cul­ti­vate a wa­ter­mel­on field which yield­ed an es­ti­mat­ed 70,000 pounds of mel­on.

“We had our first pick this week and now we are be­ing told that we can­not come out to sell,” Ma­hase said. He added that some of the wa­ter­mel­ons were al­ready get­ting over­ripe.

“We can­not let this en­tire crop go to waste. I have to come out and sell some be­cause we have to make back some of our mon­ey,” he said. Both Ma­hase and his as­sis­tant wore sur­gi­cal masks over their faces as they sold the mel­ons.

At the gas sta­tion in Debe, the at­ten­dants al­so wore masks.

Res­i­dent Pao­lo Bis­soon said the peo­ple of the com­mu­ni­ty were afraid that there was al­ready a lo­cal spread of the virus.

“A few nights ago at Mo­hess Trace, the po­lice came ful­ly geared with masks and suits and took up a fam­i­ly. We heard that they get COVID,” Bis­soon said. He added that a res­i­dent of Sand­hill in Bar­rack­pore al­so went in­to iso­la­tion from sus­pect­ed COVID-19.

Car parts out­lets opened in the Pe­nal/Debe and Bar­rack­pore ar­eas but some agro shops such as Agro Con­cepts at Welling­ton Road, Debe and Bisses­sar’s Agro Shop at Mu­cu­rapo Street, San Fer­nan­do which were busy over the past month, stayed closed.

On High Street, all of the busi­ness­es were closed and not even road­side ven­dors came out. The streets re­mained bare ex­cept for the street dwellers who roamed the streets aim­less­ly look­ing for rem­nants of food left-back from Sun­day night.