We need to watch the borders

THE EDITOR: And what of our porous borders with Venezuela, regarding illegals entering? Some of them, I am sure, have the coronavirus. Covid19 is already in Venezuela. That country is known to be lacking in pharmaceuticals and adequate medical care, in fact earlier this week, they asked the IMF for funding to deal with the outbreak. That request was denied.

Recent reports of illegal men, women, children and possibly infected animals, arriving in Cedros, cannot be ignored. This is a serious Achilles heel regarding keeping TT safe. Why close all bars and schools but ignore unsecured entry points?

How many illegal Venezuelans have recently arrived by the boatload? There is no such thing as being short-staffed when the health of the country could be in jeopardy. It seems that a permanent Police/Regiment security force/grouping, should be constantly on duty along the South Coast.

Even if it means paying these officers more for work above and beyond the call of duty, they should be monitoring our borders 24/7. This urgent issue should be passed to the attention of the Commissioner of Police, the Minister of Health and the Minister of National Security.

Citizens residing in these vulnerable areas do not deserve increased exposure to this deadly virus from people pouring through the border. All we need is a maxi taxi with infected people coming up to Port-of-Spain from Cedros and that would be, end of story, for all efforts at containing covid19. Dropping the ball on this, cannot be allowed.

LYNETTE JOSEPH

Diego Martin