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Friday, July 11, 2025

No Gov’t Christmas parties; private sector, families asked to do same

by

Sampson Nanton
1692 days ago
20201121
Christmas parties have been banned in the Public Service.

Christmas parties have been banned in the Public Service.

- No Christ­mas par­ties at Govt of­fices, State cor­po­ra­tions

- Pri­vate sec­tor, fam­i­lies asked to do same

- $10 mil­lion to as­sist those af­fect­ed by bar re­stric­tions

- $20 mil­lion to as­sist af­fect­ed self-em­ployed

- Food ser­vices to re­sume in casi­nos

- Hunt­ing to re­sume

Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley has said there is to be no Christ­mas par­ties in the pub­lic ser­vice in 2020 and has called on the pri­vate sec­tor to fol­low suit.

At a news con­fer­ence in To­ba­go Sat­ur­day, Dr Row­ley said he will tell the head of the pub­lic ser­vice on Mon­day to in­struct all gov­ern­ment min­istries to car­ry out this di­rec­tive and will in­form the Min­is­ter of Fi­nance, as Cor­po­ra­tion Sole, to in­struct State en­ter­pris­es to do the same.

He said the aim to have stu­dents re­turn to school will be de­feat­ed if “we free up” dur­ing the Christ­mas pe­ri­od.

“If we’re not care­ful, the Christ­mas cul­tur­al re­spons­es could put us in a po­si­tion where the Jan­u­ary num­bers could say to us ‘no school’ be­cause we have be­haved bad­ly and the in­fec­tious rate would be so high that we can’t even think of bring­ing chil­dren back out to school,” he said.

“Do not en­cour­age con­gre­ga­tion and mix­ing over the Christ­mas sea­son,” he said.

He urged the pop­u­la­tion to note that the Christ­mas sea­son is not a time to re­lax mea­sures that have been im­ple­ment­ed to keep the coun­try safe.

Dr Row­ley said that he has learnt that al­most every vil­la in To­ba­go is booked for Christ­mas, adding that while that is good for To­ba­go from an eco­nom­ic stand­point, it means that there will be a rise in the po­ten­tial for cas­es to spread.

He said it will just take a few cas­es of mis­con­duct for the vi­ral to get out of hand in To­ba­go.

“It all has to do with the be­hav­iour of peo­ple com­ing to To­ba­go or are in To­ba­go,” he said.

Min­is­ter of Health Dr Ter­rance Deyals­ingh al­so called for a “holy but qui­et Christ­mas” with­out par­ties and fam­i­ly gath­er­ings.

He said the Min­istry of Health has asked the pri­vate sec­tor not to have of­fice Christ­mas par­ties that can lead to a spread of the virus.

He has asked that peo­ple re­ject in­vi­ta­tions to par­ties and oth­er events that re­quire gath­er­ings.

“Let’s spend a very qui­et Christ­mas this year so that in 2021 all of us will be around and we will cel­e­brate 2021 with all the bells and whis­tles and parang and so on,” he said.

Mean­while, Dr Row­ley said his Cab­i­net will find $10 mil­lion to sup­port peo­ple af­fect­ed by the down­turn in busi­ness be­cause of the re­stric­tions against gath­er­ings at bars.

He said he has al­so asked the Min­is­ter of Fi­nance to find $20 mil­lion for So­cial Ser­vices to as­sist thou­sands who are self-em­ployed and are now fac­ing des­ti­tu­tion be­cause of the re­stric­tions.

He point­ed out, for ex­am­ple, peo­ple who set up food stalls out­side sport­ing events but who are no longer earn­ing rev­enue be­cause of the mea­sures in place.

Among oth­er changes, food ser­vices will be al­lowed in casi­nos and hunters will be al­lowed to hunt again.

On Mon­day, the prime min­is­ter said, the Min­is­ter of Agri­cul­ture will take the steps to have hunters reg­is­tered so that at the end of next week­end, hunters will be al­lowed to hunt.

There has been no changes in oth­er mea­sures, in­clud­ing those placed on gath­er­ings at bars.


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