SPORTT plans for major sanitisation exercise

LOCAL sporting venues are expected to be properly and thoroughly sanitised, post-covid19, according to Douglas Camacho, chairman of the Sports Company of TT (SPORTT).

Camacho, in an interview on Thursday, mentioned that there will be specific focus on hygiene and maintenance of the facilities throughout TT.

“First of all, we’ve always had that as a policy, to maintain the (facilities) properly,” said Camacho. “But our desire is to spend a lot more on maintenance, and preventative maintenance.

“Secondly, from the time this (coronavirus pandemic) started, we had all of the venues, under the control and remit of the Sports Company, properly (and) thoroughly sanitised,” he continued.

Sporting facilities have remained closed since mid-March due to the pandemic.

Camacho said, “When the restrictions change to allow mobility of people, and it is appropriate to open the facilities for the public, we will be doing a major sanitisation exercise, regardless of the fact that we’ve actually shut them off from the public for a while now.

“We’re still going to do it because we may say we’re settled now but we don’t know what’s going on there. Yes, we have security and all those things in place, but we’re going to be doing a major (exercise) before we open it back up to the public. Once it’s opened back up to the public, we’ll certainly be making sure that all the necessary hygiene tests continue to be put in place.”

The state of washroom facilities at major sporting venues in TT has been criticised by the public for many years.

“People get a little annoyed when we lock off areas of a facility, and we lock it off if we can’t get any funds to do it properly,” said the SPORTT chairman. “Coming out of this pandemic, for sure we’ll be more attentive to that level of detail and only allow people to the facilities when we know that they’ve been properly sanitised, and all the necessary hygienic elements are in place for the public’s use.”

Some athletes were allowed the use of a few local sporting venues to train. But Camacho stated, “From the time the Prime Minister made the announcement that (almost) everything will have to shut down (from March 30), we took it off-line. Initially, when it was off-line to the public, we had allowed athletes to continue training, on a schedule.

“So, we reached out to all the entities, the ones who were in-line for major games, we said (they) could have these facilities for only national athletes in training,” added Camacho. “We made arrangement for time and venues, and we did that for a while.

“Then, when the Prime Minister carried up the security levels another notch, we immediately shut down all the facilities. They understood that they had to do their own thing to keep fit.

Once people are back in training for their respective international engagements, the facilities will again be made available for national athletes, with proper structure and in conjunction with the national governing bodies.”