In a press re­lease is­sued this morn­ing, the Min­istry of Health stat­ed that there were three ad­di­tion­al cas­es of COVID-19 in this coun­try bring­ing the to­tal to 60.

Two of the cas­es are na­tion­als who re­turned from the cruise and the oth­er has a his­to­ry of re­cent trav­el.

The fol­low­ing is a press re­lease from the Min­istry of Health:

Port-of-Spain, March 25, 2020:  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 morn­ing of Wednes­day, 25th March, 2020, the Min­istry re­ports the fol­low­ing:

- Num­ber of sam­ples sub­mit­ted to the Caribbean Pub­lic Health Agency (CARPHA) for test­ing for COVID-19 = 370

- Num­ber of sam­ples which have test­ed pos­i­tive = 60

Three (3) ad­di­tion­al per­sons have test­ed pos­i­tive for COVID-19.

- Cas­es fifty-eight (58) and fifty-nine (59) have a his­to­ry of re­cent trav­el.

- Case six­ty (60) is an ad­di­tion­al pos­i­tive case from the group of six­ty-eight (68) na­tion­als who re­turned from the cruise.

Forty-four (44) of these pos­i­tive cas­es came from the group of na­tion­als who re­cent­ly re­turned from a cruise, (41 from the group of 68 na­tion­als who re­turned to­geth­er and three ad­di­tion­al per­sons, who were al­so on the cruise, but re­turned to Trinidad and To­ba­go sep­a­rate­ly, from the oth­er 68).

The Min­istry of Health urges the pub­lic to wash your hands reg­u­lar­ly with soap and wa­ter or thor­ough­ly clean your hands with an al­co­hol-based hand rub if soap and wa­ter are not avail­able.

Wash­ing your hands with soap and wa­ter or us­ing al­co­hol-based hand rub kills virus­es that may be on your hands. Hands touch many sur­faces and can pick up virus­es. Once con­t­a­m­i­nat­ed, hands can trans­fer the virus to your eyes, nose or mouth. From there, the virus can en­ter your body and can make you sick.

The pub­lic is al­so urged to take the fol­low­ing per­son­al hy­giene mea­sures to pro­tect them­selves and their loved ones from COVID-19:

1. Wash your hands prop­er­ly with soap and wa­ter

   - Use an al­co­hol-based hand san­i­tiz­er if wa­ter and soap are not avail­able

2. Cov­er your nose and mouth with a tis­sue when you cough or sneeze

   - Dis­pose of tis­sue im­me­di­ate­ly af­ter us­ing

   - Cough and sneeze in­to the crook of your el­bow if you do not have a tis­sue

3. Avoid touch­ing your face

4. San­i­tize hard sur­faces (e.g. ta­ble tops, handrails, door­knobs and trol­leys) as of­ten as pos­si­ble.

5. Avoid close con­tact with peo­ple who have flu-like symp­toms

6. Prac­tice so­cial dis­tanc­ing

   - Main­tain at least 2 me­tres (6 feet) dis­tance be­tween your­self and oth­ers, es­pe­cial­ly any­one who is cough­ing or show­ing signs of ill­ness   

   - Stay home if you are ill

7. It is al­so ad­vised that all pub­lic trans­porta­tion ve­hi­cles should op­er­ate with win­dows open and, where pos­si­ble, lim­it their oc­cu­pan­cy.

The Min­istry will con­tin­ue to pro­vide ac­cu­rate in­for­ma­tion to the pub­lic in a time­ly fash­ion. The pub­lic is there­fore urged to dis­re­gard and avoid shar­ing all un­con­firmed, mis­lead­ing and/or false in­for­ma­tion about COVID-19 (for­mer­ly Nov­el Coro­n­avirus).