MOST of TT will have to remain home for another six weeks as restrictions put in place to curb the spread of covid19 continue up to July 4.
This is in addition to the state of emergency (SoE), which could last for an additional three months after Parliament votes on it on Monday.
Speaking at the Diplomatic Centre, St Ann’s, on Saturday, the Prime Minister said the restrictions imposed on April 29, which were amended days afterwards, will end on July 4.
The restrictions, which shut down restaurants, bars, street food vendors, beauticians and construction sites, among other businesses, is separate from the SoE called on May 15.
Asked when there will be a roll-back on restrictions, Dr Rowley said he did not want to speculate, but will be “guided by the condition of the country.”
“The regulations: they will be extended to July 4. That will allow us to deal with the issue of quarantine and mask-wearing and so on.
“We are in a state of emergency that will go until, when we go to the Parliament tomorrow (in fact Monday). We will take the 90 days that the law allows, but it doesn’t mean we will be in this situation for 90 days. We will revoke it as soon as that is the prudent action to take.
“We want to come out of it as quickly as possible. Both the SoE and public health regulation will be determined by the condition of the country at any given day.”
The increase in covid19 cases which triggered the restrictions in April saw an exponential increase in May, with a record high of over 8,000 cases up May 21.
According to the 4 pm update on Saturday there were 17 deaths overnight, the third highest daily total reported since the start of the pandemic. The number of new cases reported was 509, which also represents a record high. For the month of May alone, there have been 196 deaths so far, which on average is nearly nine deaths daily or almost one death every three hours.
Where the numbers
need to be
Last Wednesday Attorney General Faris Al-Rawi, quoting epidemiologist Dr Avery Hinds, said the SoE will be lifted when the new daily cases have dropped to about 15 a day for a two-week period.
Al-Rawi, who was speaking in a Twitter Spaces conversation, said Hinds “addressed that squarely. He said, ‘Let’s get back to 15 per day.’
“So we were up at 150, and he said we really wanted to have a rolling average per day of about 15-30, and that would be a good measure to go to."
But, asked on Saturday when this figure might be reached, Hinds said: “First of all, the statement quoted from the AG is not what the AG said. The conversation that was being had was, we were speaking about the change in trend of rolling averages, and that (at) the point when were at 15 and moving upwards, we were sounding the alarm, that we were going in the wrong direction.”
He added that there is no specific number that needs to be reached before rolling back restrictions, and a lot of things need to be taken into consideration first.
