Re­search by the Uni­ver­si­ty of the West In­dies (The UWI) has con­firmed that the new Unit­ed King­dom and South African vari­ant of the COVID-19 virus is not in cir­cu­la­tion in T&T.

There are 10 new pos­i­tive cas­es of COVID-19 in Trinidad and To­ba­go, based on sam­ples tak­en from pa­tients be­tween Fri­day 1st and Sun­day 3rd Jan­u­ary 2021.

To­day's nom­i­na­tions for the To­ba­go House of As­sem­bly (THA) elec­tions took a back seat dur­ing Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley's ear­ly morn­ing in­ter­view on To­ba­go's Chan­nel 5.

At the height of the glob­al pan­dem­ic, ap­prox­i­mate­ly 91 per cent of coun­tries had bor­der clo­sures, ac­cord­ing to the US-based, Pew Re­search Cen­tre. En­ter­ing 2021, T&T re­mains one of three Caribbean ter­ri­to­ries whose bor­ders re­main closed–the oth­ers be­ing Mon­ster­att and the Cay­man Is­lands.

The lat­est up­date from the Min­istry of Health is con­firm­ing 6 new pos­i­tive cas­es of COVID-19, bring­ing the to­tal num­ber of ac­tive cas­es in the coun­try to 351 pa­tients.

The lat­est up­date from the Min­istry of Health is con­firm­ing 8 new pos­i­tive cas­es of COVID-19, bring­ing the to­tal num­ber of ac­tive cas­es in the coun­try to 360 pa­tients.

There has been one new death from COVID-19 in Trinidad and To­ba­go, mak­ing the na­tion­al to­tal now 126.

The lat­est up­date from the Min­istry of Health is con­firm­ing 12 new pos­i­tive cas­es of COVID-19, bring­ing the to­tal num­ber of ac­tive cas­es in the coun­try to 407 pa­tients.

The Uni­ver­si­ty of the West In­dies is en­cour­ag­ing peo­ple to main­tain a re­spon­si­ble, pos­i­tive and open-mind­ed ap­proach to­wards the COVID-19 vac­cine.

One group rep­re­sent­ing T&T na­tion­als who can­not re­turn home due to COVID-19 bor­der re­stric­tions says gov­ern­ment should re­move the ex­emp­tion process al­to­geth­er.

The lat­est up­date from the Min­istry of Health is con­firm­ing 8 new pos­i­tive cas­es of COVID-19, bring­ing the to­tal num­ber of ac­tive cas­es in the coun­try to 436 pa­tients.

But for this to hap­pen, she needs the help of gen­er­ous Samar­i­tans so she can ex­tend the ten by eight room she cur­rent­ly calls home.