29th June 2022

No Covid test to enter Trinidad &Tobago, quarantine facility at Caura for monkeypox victims

By Trinidad Express

The monkeypox virus has been deemed a dangerous infectious disease in Trinidad and Tobago.

Speaking during Wednesday’s virtual Covid-19 press conference, Health minister Terrence Deyalsingh said: “Last Thursday I would have taken a note to Cabinet on matters relating to monkeypox, and Cabinet would have considered the note and would have agreed to proclaim monkeypox virus as a dangerous infectious disease, under Section 103 of the Public Health Ordinance, with immediate effect.

"Also, you would have seen that Legal Notice 126 has been issued by the Office of the President, who would have signed off on that.

"The Cabinet Note also spoke to the approval of an order by the quarantine authority to allow special measures to be taken in light of the emergency of the spread of the monkeypox under Section 6(1) of the Quarantine Act, Chap 28:05."

He said the decision will allow them quarantine persons with a foreign travel history, who are entering Trinidad and Tobago and are either a suspected or confirmed case of the virus.

"Under the Public Health Regulations, these are to isolate and treat persons with no link to travel.

"The Cabinet Note and the decision under these two pieces of legislation, also allow the minister to designate a facility specifically for the treatment and isolation of persons with monkeypox. We have taken a decision that the Caura facility (Caura Hospital) will be designated as the facility to isolate and treat any suspected or confirmed case of monkeypox.

"We urge people to pay attention to the global issues surrounding monkeypox. Please note there was one case on a flight into a Caricom country but nobody disembarked, and so far there is no threat to Trinidad and Tobago from that particular incident."

The Health Minister also stated that effective Friday (July 1), persons entering Trinidad and Tobago will no longer have to produce a negative PCR or antigen test as a requirement for entry.

“So that is one other relaxation of measures,” Deyalsingh said.

On the issue of childhood vaccination as it relates to polio, Deyalsingh said the country is at 94 per cent, one per cent short of the targeted figure of 95 per cent.

Stating that between two and three hundred children need to be vaccinated for the country to achieve it target, Deyalsingh urged parents to have their children vaccinated.

“Regrettably, what is happening globally and in Trinidad and Tobago, the misinformation and disinformation being put out by individuals in Trinidad and Tobago about the Covid vaccine for children has contaminated the information pool about vaccinations in general. And what is happening globally, regionally and locally, the unsuspecting parent is not making the distinction between the Covid vaccine for children and other vaccinations. And this is a regrettable outcome of the misinformation and disinformation being put out there by persons who should really know better.

“Unfortunately we now have to work so much harder to get parents to vaccinate their children against childhood diseases that they have been vaccinating against for decades.”

Noting that the country’s vaccination programme has been for decades one that they boast about, Deyalsingh urged parents and guardians to be reminded that it is their guarantee against their child attracting preventable childhood diseases such as polio, measles, mumps, rubella, yellow fever and all of those things.

“Please read these bits of disinformation with a discerning ear and make an informed decision to continue the practice of childhood vaccinations that has been encouraged in this country for decades.”

The Health Minister also provided the following update with respect to the status of the country’ health facilities in the aftermath of Tuesday’s expected weather system:

• South West Regional Health Authority – all health centres are open for normal service with the exception of the Rochard Douglas Health Centre
• North West Regional Health Authority – full service at all their health centres will resume tomorrow (Thursday) inclusive of their mass vaccination sites.
• Eastern Regional Health Authority – all facilities are open inclusive of vaccination sites.
• North Central Regional Health Authority – all clinic health centres are open, hospital clinics will reopen from Thursday.

Deyalsingh noted that the Rochard Douglas Health Centre is functional but had to be closed due to the access road being under flood waters, while the Covid tents North West and North Central RHAs were dismantled on Tuesday in the anticipation of the storm, and will now have to be re-erected.

He stated that two of the mass vaccinations sites under the North Central RHA will not reopen due to low or non-existent demand.

“The UTT Campus at Munroe Road will no longer be a mass vaccination site. They need that Campus to start back face-to-face classes. Also, the Larry Gomes Stadium is going to be returned to SportTT, so sporting activities can start back there in full,” Deyalsingh said.

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