Coronavirus - COVID-19 in Trinidad & Tobago. Does Trinidad & Tobago have the necessary infrastructure to effectively control the Coronavirus - COVID-19 so it does not become a local outbreak?
Opposition leader Kamla Persad-Bissesser has said that a patient who tested positive for coronavirus COVID-19, has died at the Couva Hospital. She made the announcement in a media release in which she called for a lockdown of the country for 14 days. Source 9k.
Jimmy Aboud, the only textile store open in the area, stayed open even after police visited shortly after it opened at around 10.30 am. It closed after 1 pm. Newsday visited the store again around noon and spoke with several customers, one of whom described its interior as being "In a mess," and said people were tightly packed in the narrow aisles. Source 5t.
How people are responding to this pandemic is a good indication of the mind set here. People are not doing social distancing and when they meet their friends they think they do not have to social distance. Some of them take off their masks and talk normally as though because they are friends they cannot pass on the virus to each other.
The Office of the Attorney General has stated that recent public health regulations do not affect citizens’ constitutional right to freedom of movement and that the T&T Police Service (TTPS) can not arrest persons for failing to abide by the Government’s call for citizens to stay at home during the COVID-19 pandemic. Source 8c.