Two more peo­ple died of COVID-19 in To­ba­go in the past 24 hours, bring­ing the to­tal num­ber of COVID- re­lat­ed deaths to 39.

The T&T Reg­is­tered Nurs­es As­so­ci­a­tion (TTR­NA) says one of the rea­sons a high per­cent­age of the nurs­ing per­son­nel in T&T re­mains un­vac­ci­nat­ed is mi­gra­tion.

Pres­i­dent Paula-Mae Weekes, Pres­i­dent of the Sen­ate, Chris­tine Kan­ga­loo, and Speak­er of the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives, Bridgid Mary An­nisette-George to­day laid wreaths at the Red House Ceno­taph in solemn re­mem­brance of those who lost their lives as a re­sult of the events on Ju­ly 27th, 1990.

De­spite un­suc­cess­ful search­es by the po­lice, track­er dogs, friends and fam­i­ly over the last three weeks for 85-year-old Siew Ram­nar­ine, his rel­a­tives are still cling­ing to hope that he will re­turn home alive.

Min­is­ter of So­cial De­vel­op­ment and Fam­i­ly Ser­vices Don­na Cox put off a planned vis­it to the Burke fam­i­ly in Mar­aval yes­ter­day, af­ter she was told the fa­ther, Troy Burke, was not ready for vis­i­tors.

Art was not just about draw­ing and paint­ing, but it was a way of life for Mas­ter Artist LeRoy Clarke, who with every stroke of his brush told the sto­ries of love, strug­gle, tri­umph, at times war, and the rich cul­tur­al her­itage of his African an­ces­try.

The Di­vi­sion of Health, Well­ness, and Fam­i­ly De­vel­op­ment an­nounced yes­ter­day that the more con­ta­gious form of COVID-19, the Gam­ma vari­ant, which was al­so known as the Brazil­ian vari­ant, is in To­ba­go as the first of­fi­cial case was con­firmed.

For al­most three months, restau­ra­teurs and food ven­dors wait­ed for the gov­ern­ment to give the green light so they could earn a dol­lar to pay their staff, cred­i­tors and pro­vide for their fam­i­lies.

Leader of the Joint Trade Union Move­ment (JTUM) An­cel Ro­get yes­ter­day said that he has en­cour­aged the mem­bers of the amal­ga­mat­ed unions to get vac­ci­nat­ed.

The Gam­ma Vari­ant al­so known as the Brazil­ian or P1 vari­ant has been de­tect­ed in To­ba­go and health of­fi­cials say this is fu­el­ing the in­crease in cas­es on the is­land. Through a press re­lease, the TRHA an­nounced that the is­land record­ed its first case of the Gam­ma Vari­ant and test­ing will be ramped-up for vari­ants of con­cern.

The Court of Ap­peal has re­served its de­ci­sion in the ap­peal of five men, each serv­ing 28 years in prison for manslaugh­ter in re­la­tion to a case of a San Juan busi­ness­woman, who was kid­napped and killed in 2005. 

The Min­istry of Health has record­ed 5 ad­di­tion­al COVID re­lat­ed deaths. This brings the to­tal num­ber of deaths to 1048. There are cur­rent­ly 316 pa­tients in the hos­pi­tal. The min­istry has al­so record­ed 108 new COVID cas­es in the last 24 hours, bring­ing the to­tal num­ber of ac­tive cas­es to 5789.