Ministries receive 3,000 covid19 applications

THE Social Development and Family Services Ministry has received a total of 3,000 applications for measures introduced to help people who have and continue to become financially vulnerable as a result of the covid19 pandemic. In a statement, the Social Development and Family Services Ministry said it was collaborating with the Labour Ministry to verify the applications and several of them were incomplete.

The ministry said applicants are being contacted to provide the information or missing documents required to complete their applications.

"The process is ongoing and once verifications are completed, applications will be processed accordingly."

People were asked to access applications from the websites of various government ministries as well as through TTconnect's website. The ministry said customer service representatives at its call centre. and to a limited extent at its social welfare offices, were available to help those people who did not have internet access.

As an essential service, the ministry said it actively promotes practices such as social distancing of people at all of its offices in accordance with public health regulations issued to prevent the spread of covid19 in TT. Other measures include encouraging people to call rather than come into the ministry's offices and only call in groups of five people at a time, with police officers ensuring that other people waiting their turn to enter, maintain proper social distancing.

In a separate statement, the ministry said it collaborated with the TT Defence Force to build a temporary shelter for street dwellers at the ground level of the Centre for Displaced People (CSDP) Riverside Car Park in Port of Spain. The ministry said the works should be completed on Wednesday. After these works are done, the ministry said the shelter's beneficiaries "will undergo a process of admission to the facility."

The ministry said the shelter would provide beneficiaries with cots to sleep on, bathroom facilities, a dining/recreation facility and three meals daily. Cots will be laid on metal frames on the existing roadway for ease of maintenance. The shelter will have a female dormitory which will be separate from the male dormitory, enclosed using sheets of ply board, and secured.

The male dormitory, and dining/recreation area will remain open. Running water will be provided for washing hands, bathing and personal hygiene. A security fence is also to be erected to prevent illegal/unauthorized entry to the stairs of CSDP.