(Source : Trinidad express) Trinidad and Tobago will “possibly” consider reopening its borders to countries when Covid-19 transmissions in those countries decrease or reach to zero, says Chief Medical Officer Dr Roshan Parasram.
T&T closed its borders to all countries from midnight on March 22.
“When things change in the coming months, I assume, there will be countries with decreased transmission or no transmission at all, we will have to look at possibly a reverse order in the way we allow people in the country,” Parasram said during yesterday’s Covid-19 virtual news conference.
He noted that Covid-19 numbers were still rising in countries like the United States and Brazil.
“When we look at countries like the US, which a lot of nationals come back into…22,133 people would have tested positive within the last day in the US. I believe that is the highest total they would have had for quite a while, if not the highest total they would have had. Similarly in Brazil, we have 25,982 cases within the last 24 hours which is reported by WHO (World Health Organisation) so their numbers are rising as well and they are all around us,” Parasram pointed out.
He went on:
“We have to judge basically if and when to reopen our borders based on what the circumstance is on the outside, just as we closed it based on what the circumstance was at that time in certain countries.
“But for now, because the pandemic has spread so quickly throughout the world, the situation in no particular country has reached the stage where we can allow entry from any one territory as yet. So hence the reason we had made the recommendation to have the borders continue to remain closed.”
