SoE, school closures part of covid19 response plans

Image courtesy CDC
Image courtesy CDC

Chief medical officer Roshan Parasram on Wednesday articulated Trinidad and Tobago's three-tiered response plan for any spread of the coronavirus.

Speaking during a meeting of the parliamentary Public Administration and Appropriations Committee on covid19, Parasram said a committee at the Ministry of Health had looked at different scenarios in terms of the levels of spread of the virus.

The three tiers include home isolation at one end of the scale and a possible state of emergency at the other.

Tier one involves a situation in which a returning national comes from a country identified at risk and has symptoms. The response identified by the ministry would be to send that person straight home to self-quarantine, as the chance of spreading is considered to be very low.

In tier two, a returning national from a country that has not been identified as being at risk enters the country and days later presents with symptoms and confirms as a positive case.

Parasram said the response at this tier would be to isolate the person immediately, but as there may have been local spread, since they may have gone to work or visited relatives, the Health Ministry would look at local containment and possible closures of schools, as well as dissuasion of mass gatherings.

At tier three, if a large group of people are positive for the virus in different parts of the country, the response can be a state of emergency.

Parasram said sanitisation in these circumstances includes using wipes as well as bleach-and-water mixtures.

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"SoE, school closures part of covid19 response plans"

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