Animal diseases bill approved in Senate (May 20, 2020)

Paula Lindo Wednesday 20 May 2020 The Red House. - Jeff Mayers The Animal (Diseases and Importation) (Amendment) Bill 2019 was approved with amendments in the Senate on Tuesday. The bill, which has 37 clauses and over 70 pages, seeks to protect and promote animal health and to prevent the introduction and spread of animal diseases within TT and from other countries; to facilitate and regulate trade in animals, carcasses, animal products and animal-related items; to establish standards for animal welfare, and for other connected purposes. The bill was passed after debate during the committee stage over concerns raised by Opposition Senators over the degree of power to be held by an inspector, the penalties which would accrue to owners of pets if they allowed harm to come to animals, particularly from exposure to fireworks, among other matters. The Senate was then adjourned to Wednesday at 10 am. First posted

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Kamla: No joy from Hinds’ appointment (May 19, 2020)

Paula Lindo Tuesday 19 May 2020 Fitzgerald Hinds, Public Utilities Minister - OPPOSITION Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar said the appointment of Laventille West MP Fitzgerald Hinds to the post of Public Utilities Minister following the resignation of Robert Le Hunte is a holding position for the upcoming election. She said Hinds’ re-appointment to the post, which he held from October 2016 to June 2017, showed that government had no-one of real capability or competence to fill the position. She said even under Le Hunte’s tenure, the current administration failed to provide water, and she did not see any joy coming to the people of TT out of the appointment.

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Real Estate Agents Bill approved in Senate (May 21, 2020)

Paula Lindo Thursday 21 May 2020 The Real Estate Agents Bill, 2020 was approved with amendments in the Senate on Wednesday. The bill, which has 83 clauses, is entitled “An Act to provide for the registration and regulation of real estate agents in order to promote transparency, accountability and integrity in the real estate profession, to protect and assist persons engaged in transactions with real estate agents and to assist in the detection and prevention of money laundering and terrorist financing, and other related matters.”

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Venezuela Earthquake Family Relief, organized by Laurent Perez

My name is Laurent. I am Venezuelan and currently live abroad. I am creating this fun… Laurent Perez necesita tu apoyo para Venezuela Earthquake Family Relief

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Kamla: Bill can be politically ‘weaponised’ (May 19, 2020)

Paula Lindo Tuesday 19 May 2020 Opposition leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar. - OPPOSITION Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar said the Opposition opposed the Bail (Amendment) (no 2) Bill 2019 because the measures proposed by government could be used as a “weapon” by the ruling PNM going into the general election season. She said it could be used against people not in support of the government. The opposition, she said, felt the bill was too draconian, too much in violation of citizens’ rights without the appropriate checks and balances, “and which can certainly be abused.”

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Local govt corps clamping down on illegal dumping (May 19, 2020)

Paula Lindo Tuesday 19 May 2020 Kazim Hosein RURAL development and local government minister Kazim Hosein said the 14 municipal corporations continue to prepare for the upcoming rainy and hurricane seasons. Hosein said his ministry is collaborating with the health ministry and other stakeholders, including the disaster management units of the corporations, to develop additional strategies and precautionary measures for the upcoming seasons. “The data is telling us to expect a very active hurricane season and so it is critical that our disaster response mechanisms are in place early. There are also new concerns about shelter management and the provision of relief items in light of the covid19 pandemic.

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Debe/Penal facility to be emptied, cleaned (May 15, 2020)

Paula Lindo Friday 15 May 2020 Health Minister Terrance Deyalsingh PAULA LINDO After the discharge of the 69 returnees from Suriname later today, the remaining patient at the UWI Penal/Debe campus will be moved to the Cascadia Hotel in St Ann's. Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh said this will allow cleaning of the step-down facility. He said this will bring the number of individuals at Cascadia to three, as 12 Cuban nurses have finished their quarantine there. Deyalsingh said the National Racquet Centre at Tacarigua will now house the 21 people who returned from Guyana yesterday. First posted

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Report to be sent to DPP over private labs’ covid19 testing (May 14, 2020)

Paula Lindo Thursday 14 May 2020 Director of Public Prosecutions Roger Gaspard. - The Ministry of Health’s legal department is compiling a file of private labs offering covid19 testing to be sent to the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP). Minister Terrence Deyalsingh said this is because he has seen advertisements from private labs offering this service, but he is not aware that any private labs have yet been certified to do covid19 testing. He reminded the public and the lab owners that even when private labs are certified, there will be a $50,000 fine and six month’s imprisonment for the lab owner/operator and the person being tested if the results of the test are not forwarded to the CMO and the RHA responsible for the area where the person resides or works.

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Regionally, credit unions look out for customers (May 14, 2020)

Paula Lindo Thursday 14 May 2020 - The covid19 crisis has affected economies worldwide, leaving people without work in many cases due to stay-at-home measures, lockdowns and other measures to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus. Credit unions in the Caribbean have put several responses in place to cater to the needs of their members. During a webinar hosted by the Cipriani College of Labour and Co-operative Studies, heads of various credit union organisations outlined the operational responses that they and their members had put in place. Many of them were the same, including finding ways for their workers to telecommute, determining how annual general meetings (AGMs) would take place, as this was when dividends were paid out, and lobbying governments to make sure that credit unions were seen as essential services.

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Derek Walcott poetry prize shortlist announced (May 13, 2020)

Paula Lindo Wednesday 13 May 2020 Derek Walcott courtesy the Walcott Estate. - Danielle Devaux The shortlist for the first Derek Walcott Prize has been announced. The prize will be awarded annually to the author of a full-length book of poems published in 2019 by a living poet who is not a US citizen. The shortlist consists of: • Curl by TO Bobe • Girlhood by Julia Copus • Crow Gulch by Douglas Walbourne-Gough • A Little Body Are Many Parts by Legna Rodriguez Iglesias • The Hammer and other poems by Adelaide Ivanova…

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Masks: What are the differences? (May 13, 2020)

Paula Lindo Wednesday 13 May 2020 Minister of Health Terrence Deyalsingh wears what he later described as a "construction N95 mask" while visiting a Marios Pizza restaurant on Independence Square, Port of Spain, on Tuesday. - JEFF K MAYERS There has been confusion surrounding the types of N95 masks. The term N95 mask is used interchangeably to mean surgical mask, surgical N95 respirator and industrial N95 respirator. During Wednesday's press conference, Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh said the mask he wore during his walkabout in downtown Port of Spainn on Tuesday was a "construction N95 mask."

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Chaguanas East opens IT centre for school children (May 13, 2020)

Paula Lindo Wednesday 13 May 2020 MP for Chaguanas East Fazal Karim. - The Chaguanas East Constituency office will be opening its IT centre on Monroe Road by appointment only for children to attend online classes. MP Fazal Karim made the announcement on May 8 on the constituency Facebook page. He said the measure was put in place because he was aware that many families in his constituency did not own computers nor had internet access, making it impossible for their children to continue their schooling online. Karim said the necessary permissions had been arranged and social distancing and sanitisation procedures had been put in place for children’s and staff’s safety.

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Minister: State quarantine mandatory for returnees (May 13, 2020)

Paula Lindo Wednesday 13 May 2020 Minister of Health Terrence Deyalsingh. - ANGELO MARCELLE State quarantine will be mandatory for anyone re-entering the country, regardless of whether they have gone through quarantine in the country they are coming from. Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh said this is in accordance with quarantine protocols set out by the CMO. He said it is policy that the health ministry must have assurance that returnees have been properly quarantined in TT, as the ministry has no idea of the circumstances of their quarantine in any other country.

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PAHO: New governance model needed for covid19 (May 13, 2020)

Paula Lindo Wednesday 13 May 2020 Dr Carissa Etienne The Pan-American Health Organisation (PAHO) and the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) will be working together to shape a new governance model that caters to economic growth and social protection in the wake of the covid19 virus. Resilient health systems and universal health coverage were viewed as key elements of the new model. PAHO director Dr Carissa F Etienne said the pandemic has forced the region to address three emergencies simultaneously: health, social and economic. She said a joint approach was needed to successfully contain the virus.

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MoH: Elective surgeries restart (May 13, 2020)

Paula Lindo Wednesday 13 May 2020 Terrence Deyalsingh - Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh said he made the decision as minister to postpone elective surgeries until now. He announced that elective surgeries have been restarted on a phased basis, and waiting patients will be contacted. Responding to a letter to the editor in a daily newspaper at a Ministry of Health virtual presser on Wednesday morning, Deyalsingh refuted claims by a “well-known antagonist” that the CEO of the Southwest Regional Health Authority had stopped elective surgeries. He said it was unfortunate that the individual continued to peddle their version of untruth.

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Deyalsingh: All returnees to be quarantined (May 13, 2020)

Paula Lindo Wednesday 13 May 2020 Terrence Deyalsingh - Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh said anyone allowed to come into the country at this time will be required to undergo quarantine by the state. He said this is because the health ministry cannot be sure of the conditions that people would have been in before returning to TT, and the ministry is not prepared to take their word for it. He said the quarantine is to ensure the health and safety of the returning people, their families and the population. Currently, there are 14 people in quarantine at Cascadia, the 12 nurses from Cuba and two returning citizens. These two citizens returned to the country from the Bahamas and the USA on Monday by private jet. First posted

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Tobago gets machine, test kits (May 13, 2020)

Paula Lindo Wednesday 13 May 2020 Minister of Health Terrence Deyalsingh - The Scarborough General Hospital has received machines and test kits to enable testing for covid19 in Tobago. Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh said training and validation are currently taking place and testing can begin from next week. He said the machine, called a gene expert machine, is not a high-throughput machine like the ones at the Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA) and the Trinidad Public Health Laboratory. He said the machine can only do three tests per hour, and so is suitable for emergency use in Tobago if there is concern about a patient.

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Govt to spend $6b on covid19 relief (May 13, 2020)

Paula Lindo Wednesday 13 May 2020 Colm Imbert - PAULA LINDO AND NARISSA FRASER Finance Minister Colm Imbert said government is projecting a total expenditure of $6 billion on covid19 relief and other needs between now and September. He said $934 million had been spent to date on covid19 relief. He broke down spending by various ministries and departments, with projected expenditure up to September 2020. Imbert said a figure for the health ministry could not yet be determined, especially if there was an increase in cases, or if students allowed to come home from university had to be quarantined.

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$300m loans coming for micro/small/medium enterprises (May 12, 2020)

Paula Lindo Tuesday 12 May 2020 Finance Minister Colm Imbert - Finance Minister Colm Imbert said government will be providing support to the micro/small/medium-enterprise sector through a $300 million loan programme. He said government will subsidise all the interest and part of the collateral as well on these loans which will be provided through state bank First Citizens Bank, so that the interest rate can be controlled. He said micro-enterprises will also be given additional support in terms of grants, as it is understood that they are less able to stand the shocks of these times. Imbert said the loans will be for payroll support and he will give further details next week. First posted

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Writer explores loss of Caribbean identity (May 17, 2020)

Paula Lindo Sunday 17 May 2020 Amanda Choo Quan - “Why was post-racial nationhood held up as an ideal? Why was it deemed necessary for us to disconnect ourselves from our respective motherlands to move past colonialism? Why do some people prefer to see ourselves as raceless? How is this any different from what happens in the USA, where immigrants are forced to assimilate, to drop their cultures, accents, defining factors, individual struggles, and accept the American Dream? These are some of the questions explored in writer Amanda Choo Quan’s It Starts with a Shatter, an extract from her work-in-progress An Emotional History of the West Indies.

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Govt to spend $6b on covid19 relief (May 12, 2020)

Paula Lindo Tuesday 12 May 2020 Colm Imbert - Finance Minister Colm Imbert says government is projecting a total expenditure of $6 billion on covid19 relief and other needs between now and September. He said that as of Tuesday, $934 million has already been spent on dealing with the pandemic. He said the Ministry of Social Development and Family Services has already spent $98.1 million on various social support programmes, with a projected expenditure of $400 million. He said $10 million has been given to religious bodies, with a projected expenditure for this of $30 million.

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Deyalsingh: Good sense can bring faster reopening of TT (May 12, 2020)

Paula Lindo Tuesday 12 May 2020 Minister of Health Terrence Deyalsingh - ANGELO_MARCELLE Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh said if people are responsible over the next two weeks, it will be possible to crunch phases two to six of the reopening measures into a shorter time period. He said if people were not willing to follow the public health regulations, this could lead to a reversal. He said he had been sent photos of people congregating at doubles stands without masks and not physically distancing, and said these failures to follow the rules could slingshot the country back to last week.

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Contact tracing for cases 115, 116 concluded (May 11, 2020)

Paula Lindo Monday 11 May 2020 CMO Dr Roshan Parasram - CMO Dr Roshan Parasram said contact tracing for covid19 cases 115 and 116 has been concluded in terms of primary, secondary and tertiary contacts. He said the ministry will be looking out for hidden contacts from case 116 over the coming week. He said it has been three weeks since case 115 presented, so any infections resulting from this case would have been caught if they existed. Parasram said the patient currently at Couva is not the same patient who was in the high-dependency unit last week.

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Health Ministry ‘nervous’ over restrictions ease-up (May 11, 2020)

Paula Lindo Monday 11 May 2020 Minister of Health Terrance Deyalsingh. PHOTO BY AZLAN MOHAMMED HEALTH Minister Terrence Deyalsingh said the relaxing of anti-covid19 restrictions, which begins today, is a cause of nervousness for the ministry. He said the implementation of the measures in phase one is part of a well-thought-out plan based on the advice of health officials and the mistakes of other countries which tried to ease restrictions too quickly. He said the ministry expects that any new cases will begin to show up by the weekend. These will be the result of community spread and cannot be blamed on returning residents or importation, as the country's borders remain closed.

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Evangelical churches give thanks (May 9, 2020)

Paula Lindo Saturday 9 May 2020 Dr Keith Rowley - The TT Council of Evangelical Churches (TTCEC) is thanking those who have come together to fight against the covid19 virus. In a release, the council thanked the Prime Minister for steering the country through troubled waters despite having his own personal storms to navigate. It thanked the health minister for demonstrating compassion and concern for every citizen, and the CMO for maintaining calm and providing daunting clinical information. The council thanked frontline workers from the ministries of national security and health, doctors, nurses, police officers, defence force and coast guard personnel, supermarket employees and those working at the utility companies.

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Children’s Authority: Parents should monitor children (May 8, 2020)

Paula Lindo Friday 8 May 2020 Nichola Harvey-Mitchell, new Director of the Children's Authority. PHOTO COURTESY CHILDREN'S AUTHORITY The Children’s Authority is encouraging parents and guardians to monitor their child’s emotional health, following the reported death of a 14-year-old girl, allegedly by suicide. In a release, the authority said parents should stay attuned to their child’s emotional state as well as their changing behaviours, since children communicate using emotions and/or behaviours. It said once parents recognise a change in their mood or behaviour or if they appear to be in emotional or psychological distress, they should speak to the child and allow them the space to speak about how they feel.

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National mental health plan coming (May 6, 2020)

Paula Lindo Wednesday 6 May 2020 Dr Hazel Othello - Director of mental health Dr Hazel Othello has said a technical working group has been set up to look at providing mental health and psycho-social (MHPSS) support for those affected by the covid19 pandemic. Mental health and psycho-social support is a term used by the UN inter-agency standing committee to describe any type of support that aims to protect and promote psycho-social well-being and/or treat mental health conditions. The group is composed of health ministry personnel and stakeholders from NGOs, local professional organisations, and other mental stakeholders, and is chaired by Othello.

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Othello: National mental health plan in development (May 6, 2020)

Paula Lindo Wednesday 6 May 2020 Dr Hazel Othello - Director of Mental Health Dr Hazel Othello said a technical working group has been set up to look at providing mental health and psycho-social support for those affected by the covid19 pandemic. She said the group is made up of health ministry personnel and stakeholders from NGOs, the private healthcare system, and others, and is chaired by her. The group will meet weekly for May and June and bi-weekly thereafter for as long as required. She said the stakeholders contributed to the development of a national covid19 mental health and psycho-social support response plan.

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Mental Health director: Celebrate Mother’s Day virtually (May 6, 2020)

Paula Lindo Wednesday 6 May 2020 Dr Hazel Othello - Director of Mental Health Dr Hazel Othello said people will have to celebrate Mother’s Day virtually. She said in the age of covid19, certain customs such as taking mothers out to restaurants to celebrate the day cannot be followed. People will have to celebrate their mothers virtually. She suggested people make a telephone call to express their love and appreciation, or if they have access to video communication, they can have a more visual experience. First posted

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Life as a covid19 nurse in Trinidad (May 5, 2020)

Paula Lindo Tuesday 5 May 2020 Keisha Prevatt-Gomez - Keisha Prevatt-Gomez works at the Couva and Caura hospital quarantine facilities. “I feel as though we are standing at the gates and literally protecting the country," she says. "I feel a sense of purpose and responsibility towards the rest of TT. I’m making my own sacrifices because of how important it is.” She is an infection, prevention and control (IPC) nurse with the North Central Regional Health Authority. Prevatt-Gomez’s main role is to ensure that all staff dealing with covid19 patients are wearing their personal protective equipment (PPE) properly.

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