Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley has an­nounced a change in the num­ber of peo­ple who can con­gre­gate in groups, from 25 to 10.

He made the an­nounce­ment at a news con­fer­ence Fri­day, fol­low­ing 13 new cas­es in two days.

The prime min­is­ter said the gov­ern­ment and health of­fi­cials were mak­ing the change in an ef­fort to re­duce the spread of the virus.

Hours be­fore his an­nounce­ment, the Min­istry of Health an­nounced five new cas­es, two of which re­quired in­ves­ti­ga­tion to de­ter­mine the ori­gins.

The min­istry an­nounce eight new cas­es on Thurs­day.

He said the gov­ern­ment will main­tain the pro­to­cols of the num­bers at fu­ner­als, in­doors and at church­es.

He said the gov­ern­ment will al­so ask the pub­lic ser­vice to re­duce the num­ber of pub­lic ser­vants who are out at one time by hav­ing them come to work al­pha­bet­i­cal­ly and ro­tate them by days for the next 14 days.

The prime min­is­ter added that the aim is to re­duce the pop­u­la­tion of peo­ple out in the streets and among them­selves by 50 per cent.

He said the gov­ern­ment is very con­cerned about where the known peo­ple got in­fec­tions, be­ing in schools and in bars, adding that the gov­ern­ment got in­for­ma­tion on an­oth­er school that has to be shut down be­cause con­tact-trac­ing led to it.

He ad­vised that the gov­ern­ment will not stop the SEA ex­am­i­na­tions at this time, but added that if the trend of cas­es ris­ing con­tin­ues, the gov­ern­ment will act.

Dr Row­ley said the gov­ern­ment will al­so act on bars and restau­rants if so­cial dis­tanc­ing guide­lines are not ad­hered to.

“We have found di­rect links about peo­ple in­fect­ed in bars and we are keep­ing bars and restau­rants un­der very close watch for the next few days,” he said.

The prime min­is­ter ad­vised that the gov­ern­ment is al­so keep­ing pub­lic trans­porta­tion un­der watch and will act if the cur­rent rend con­tin­ues over the next 72 hours or so.

Re­gard­ing peo­ple who are seek­ing ex­emp­tions from the Min­istry of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty, he said that as of Ju­ly 29, a to­tal of 5,580 peo­ple sought ex­emp­tions to leave the coun­try.

Of those, 3,556 were grant­ed ex­emp­tions to leave and are al­ready mak­ing trav­el arrange­ments to do so. A fur­ther 2,024 are still in the pipeline.

He said the num­ber of those who ap­plied to en­ter T&T as of Ju­ly 29, was 5,539.

Of that num­ber, ex­emp­tions were grant­ed to 2,250 and 3,289 are await­ing ex­emp­tions.

He de­bunked the claim by Op­po­si­tion Leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar that 10,000 peo­ple were be­ing locked out of the coun­try, sug­gest­ing that the tal­lied the num­bers of those wish­ing to leave and those wish­ing to come in be­fore she came up with that fig­ure.