A repa­tri­at­ed na­tion­al has brought the new strain of COVID-19 (Vari­ant B117) from the Unit­ed King­dom in­to the coun­try, in­creas­ing fears now over whether health of­fi­cials will be able to con­trol its spread.

A deep wa­ter bid round is ex­pect­ed to take place be­fore the end of this year, En­er­gy Min­is­ter Franklin Khan has said.

The open­ing of a se­ries of Na­tion­al Cham­pi­onship Re­gat­tas that will cul­mi­nate with the T&T Great Race lat­er this year will take place on Feb­ru­ary 7 at a non-base point out in the Gulf of Paria.

When an ice cream ven­dor at the World’s Fair in St Louis, Mis­souri, USA, in 1904 ran out of pa­per cups, he was next to a waf­fle ven­dor who rolled the waf­fles in­to cones to hold the ice cream and this was where the ice-cream cone was cre­at­ed.

Pub­lic health of­fi­cials here had warned just a few weeks ago that it would on­ly be a mat­ter of time be­fore the high­ly-in­fec­tious Unit­ed King­dom vari­ant of COVID-19 land­ed in T&T. That grim fore­cast be­came re­al­i­ty yes­ter­day af­ter­noon, with the Min­istry of Health con­firm­ing that the strain known as B-117 ar­rived with a re­turn­ing na­tion­al who trav­elled from the UK.