Political parties halt activities over covid19

POLITICAL parties in TT are curtailing their public activities in response to the announcement of the first confirmed case of covid19 in TT.

PNM officials said a walkabout and public meeting in Barataria on Saturday which Rowley was supposed to participate in has been cancelled. The party also cancelled its Shouter Baptist celebration on March 21. On a series of public meetings which were scheduled for this month and April, a PNM official said, “We continue to be guided by the advice from the Ministry of Health and we will update our members, the media and the national population on the status of the multitude of events planned for March.

Also, the UNC has postponed its Monday Night Forum meetings until further notice.

The UNC advised citizens not to panic, follow the advisories issued by the authorities and take precautions to prevent the spread of the virus. The UNC accused Government of burying its head in the sand about covid 19. The UNC claimed the Government is now “scrambling to put measures in place to deal with it.

“There is no doubt that if this situation was better managed by the Government from the onset, we would have still been without any covid19 cases within our nation today. “

MSJ political leader David Abdulah said the party will decide on Monday whether it will proceed with a series of public activities it has planned. COP political leader Carolyn Seepersad-Bachan said the COP is reviewing its schedule of activities. She urged citizens not to panic. Seepersad-Bachan hoped measures to prevent the spread of covid19 would not impact negatively on TT’s productivity.

Progressive Party leader Nikoli Edwards said the party cancelled activities it planned for this weekend, until further notice. While this has affected the party’s campaign, Edwards said these decisions were being taken in the public’s interest.