Raphael John-Lall
raphael.lall@guardian.co.tt
Parliament will convene on Wednesday to end the state of emergency (SoE) although COVID-19 cases and deaths have been increasing, Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley announced yesterday.
The SoE has been in place since May 15 when a 9 pm to 5 am curfew was imposed in response to the rising number of COVID-19 cases and limited bed spaces in the parallel health system
Dr Rowley, who spoke at a media briefing at the Diplomatic Centre in St Anns, said the SoE was “a holding arrangement to reduce the period of exposure and mixing until such time we could have had a rollout of the vaccination programme.” He said according to the existing laws, the SoE could not be extended beyond November 30.
“I want to advise the population that while we can’t do other things, what we can do now is to remove that restriction and allow more of the population to take responsibility for themselves. The state of emergency gave us breathing room to start the vaccination programme but we can do without it now,” he said.
He added that the public health ordinance still stands and people will still be required to be masked, public gatherings will remain at ten, and fetes and parties will remain prohibited. Public transport will remain at 75 per cent capacity and border arrangements will remain the same. However, there will be a slight easing of some other restrictions
Dr Rowley said: “Religious services will remain the way they are except that we will permit the occupancy of internal gatherings to 50 per cent for religious activities which will remain for no more than 90 minutes, so you will get a bit more space usage but the time you will be exposed to in there will be 90 minutes or less. Internal use to be 50 per cent for christenings, weddings, non-religious events at 50 per cent capacity.
“As for gravesides, we will allow 25 persons there. It was ten and now we think 25 will allow more persons to co-operate with the law.”
Fully vaccinated persons will be able to use public pools as they will now fall under the safe zones initiative but beaches will remain closed.
“The fear is that once we open the beaches . . . open beaches attract a certain type of activity and that is coming together, crowding and partying. I am hoping that before Christmas we should be able to go back into the brach environment with some kind of restrictions. Maybe we can start with morning opening ups,” the prime minister said.
He warned that people who breach the public health regulations will face consequences for their actions.
“We are in a desperate situation. Don’t let it become more desperate and them look for somebody to blame,” he said
According to Dr Rowley, rising COVID-19 deaths and cases have put T&T in a “dangerous place.”
He agreed with the anti-vaxxers that it is their body and their choice but reminded them that there are consequences for their actions.
“There are people in the hospitals who have been working for a year and a half, some of them seven days a week and some of them 18 to 20 hours a day to try to keep the unfortunate alive. There are tired doctors and nurses and they have said to me that they are thinking of getting out of the arrangement because they can’t take it anymore. The people they are caring for don’t want to seem to care for themselves,” he said
He said out of a population of 1.4 million people there are 600,000 people who refuse to be vaccinated. However, despite the grim situation the country faces, Dr Rowley ruled out another lockdown.
“We have to live, we have to work, we need an economy,” he said.
“If a wave like our third wave is to come the automatic response is not to shut the country down again.”