GOVERNMENT'S announcement that come July 17 the wearing of masks in public will no longer be mandatory is a highly symbolic moment.
With the mood bleak due to high levels of crime, rising food prices and various controversies within our turbulent political landscape, few wish to dwell any longer on a disease that has blighted our country for the past two years.
Tobago Carnival is on its way, while the larger, traditional Carnival 2023 looms. The fetes have already begun, with scenes of thousands of revellers jamming on one another, most without masks and ignoring physical distancing.
The removal of the mask mandate will, for many, mean the removal of covid19 itself from our collective consciousness.
But there is still need for caution and restraint.
Masks will still be required at all public health facilities. It is also strongly recommended that vulnerable groups retain this precaution including the unvaccinated, the immunocompromised, the elderly, and those who are pregnant. A fifth group is also being asked to mask up.
'We are asking people to do a risk-based survey of themselves to assess whether they need to continue wearing masks,' Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh said on Wednesday.
'This risk should be based on your vaccination status, your medical history, your age, and the composition of your household.'
In addition, Government will recommend people continue to wear masks in geriatric homes, children's homes, on public transportation, at religious services, and all places where people are congregating indoors with inadequate ventilation and where there is difficulty in maintaining physical distance.
These caveats are important.
They strongly suggest that what has really changed is not the risk of transmission, but rather simply the State's approach amid a widespread public desire to move on.
Other countries that have long come to accept the disease as being endemic are now witnessing spikes. While TT is removing its mask mandate, some countries which did the same a while ago and are seeing spikes are contemplating reversals.
For instance, in the UK rates have surged. About 2.3 million people are now infected thanks to highly transmissible omicron subvariants such as BA4. This same BA4 variant has already been confirmed in TT and the dangerous delta variant remains ever-present.
The presence of such variants, when coupled with the small sample sizes of local testing, suggests the full extent of their circulation may be much wider than reported.
Vaccination of all citizens, whether masked or unmasked, is required to stave off more severe cases. For now, citizens would do well to remember that removing your mask does not remove covid19's reach. We are not out of the woods yet, as the scores of people infected daily show.
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