T&T expands coronavirus travel restrictions

Port of Spain, Trinidad, February 27, 2019 (Trinidad and Tobago Guardian): Trav­ellers from Iran, Italy, Japan and Sin­ga­pore will be de­nied en­try to T&T for 14 days as cur­rent­ly ob­tains for per­sons from Chi­na, Min­is­ter of Health Ter­rence Deyals­ingh an­nounced at the post-Cab­i­net press brief­ing a short while ago.

The min­is­ter gave as­sur­ances that the na­tion is ready to deal with the coro­n­avirus, should it reach our shores.

Among the plans in place in case of an out­break is that an ad­di­tion­al 20 beds will be added to the Cau­ra Hos­pi­tal. Deyals­ingh said the St. James Hos­pi­tal, which has 67 beds, as well as the old Costaatt build­ing at the Port-of-Spain Gen­er­al Hos­pi­tal will al­so be used.

In the event of a se­ri­ous out­break in T&T, the Cou­va Hos­pi­tal will be used as a cen­tral­ized hub for treat­ment for those who may po­ten­tial­ly be af­fect­ed.

Al­so at the brief­ing, Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley warned of the knock-on ef­fects of the virus over­seas which could af­fect trade and the man­u­fac­tur­ing in­dus­try. He said while there are mea­sures in place to screen for­eign­ers, re­turn­ing na­tion­als will not be de­nied en­try.

“We can­not de­ny ac­cess to na­tion­als of Trinidad and To­ba­go if they choose to re­turn to Trinidad and To­ba­go and we have cer­tain pro­to­cols in place,” Dr Row­ley said.