Op­po­si­tion Leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar has called on the Prime Min­is­ter to shut down the coun­try for 14 days to con­tain the spread of the coro­n­avirus and pro­tect cit­i­zens af­ter claim­ing that a pa­tient be­ing treat­ed for the virus has died.

Here is the full state­ment be­low:

Leader of the Op­po­si­tion Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar, SC, MP is to­day call­ing on the Gov­ern­ment to im­ple­ment mea­sures for a na­tion­wide shut­down of all non-es­sen­tial ser­vices and busi­ness­es for four­teen (14) days, in the first in­stance, in light of the trends we are see­ing in the Covid-19 pan­dem­ic.

As re­spon­si­ble rep­re­sen­ta­tives of the peo­ple, it is the Op­po­si­tion’s firm be­lief that the Gov­ern­ment must take de­ci­sive and tough ac­tions to pre­serve and pro­tect the health of the cit­i­zens of our beloved na­tion.

In light of, in­ter alia, the fol­low­ing:

1. A Covid-19 pos­i­tive pa­tient at the Cou­va Hos­pi­tal has died. We ex­tend our deep­est con­do­lences, and we must be cog­nisant of the se­ri­ous im­pli­ca­tions and con­se­quences which may fol­low.

2. The Gov­ern­ment has in­di­cat­ed that more than 20000 na­tion­als have re­turned to Trinidad and To­ba­go in the last two weeks and are re­port­ed­ly in self-quar­an­tine. This re­quires that the State iden­ti­fies these per­sons and en­sure that they self-iso­late.

3. Glob­al­ly, the coun­tries which have tak­en ear­ly, pre­emp­tive and de­ci­sive ac­tions have proven to be those coun­tries which have most ef­fec­tive­ly con­tained the rapid spread of the virus.

4. The Gov­ern­ment has rec­og­nized that moral sua­sion has not had the de­sired ef­fect, and in spite of re­peat­ed calls for good sense to pre­vail, it is clear that some have not lis­tened.

The key to get­ting ahead of the Covid-19 pan­dem­ic is ear­ly de­ci­sive ac­tion, which con­tains the dis­ease be­fore it can over­whelm the pub­lic health sys­tem.

We can­not af­ford to treat this is­sue light­ly. The lives of our cit­i­zens are at risk, and every mea­sure to pro­tect them must be tak­en.

This is about putting cit­i­zens first.

We re­main res­olute that cit­i­zens must re­main calm and keep them­selves and their fam­i­lies safe, but the State must act.

In this re­gard, I strong­ly urge the Prime Min­is­ter to im­me­di­ate­ly in­sti­tute a four­teen (14) day shut­down of non-es­sen­tial ser­vices and busi­ness­es, to bet­ter pro­tect our cit­i­zens.