Rowley warns church people again

The Prime Minister has, one again, reiterated the need for churches and other groups to discourage congregating as the country seeks to curb the spread of the covid19 virus.

Dr Rowley said, if the calls are ignored, Government will have to intervene.

He was speaking at a news briefing at the Diplomatic Centre in St Ann’s to update the nation on measures being put in place to deal with the pandemic.

Asked to respond to the fact that people were ignoring social distancing guidelines and still gathering in groups of more than ten people, Rowley said, “The law provides for intervention. We have deliberately started out on this process by speaking to the population and relying on the good sense of the vast majority of people in the country. We know the minority would not understand or cooperate and, as leader of government, I did say we have a heavy hand and we will use it if we have to.”

The PM said people should look at what is happening internationally where the death toll from the virus in some countries is very high.

“If our health sector would have done so well and our healthcare givers are doing so well, and instead of getting the benefit of that there are people who would be irresponsible and do exactly what we told them not to do...”

He said TT can minimise its exposure and the effects of the virus if all citizens do what they are supposed to do.

“I did say before, nothing we do here is about punishing anybody. It is all about trying to saves lives and protecting our population. It has nothing to do with curtailing people’s rights to worship their gods, it is about saving lives and protecting our yet unidentified persons.”