Trinidad and Tobago ranked high in readiness to relax covid19 lockdown
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Trinidad and Tobago ranks second among 149 countries in terms of readiness to begin relaxing covid19 lockdown measures.
A study by Oxford University's Blavatnik School of Government, dated April 23, analysed the countries’ responses to covid19 based on the number of controlled cases, tracking, tracing and isolating, managing imported cases and community understanding.
Oxford is top of the Times Higher Education Supplement's world university 2020 rankings.
The study used four of the WHO’s criteria for when a country can begin considering relaxing “lockdown” and social-distancing measures.
These are: Establishing preventive measures in workplaces; having sufficient public health workforce and health system capacities to shift from detecting and treating cases to detecting and isolating; managing the risk of importing and exporting cases; and ensuring communities understand that large-scale movement restriction, public health and social measures are a "new normal" and will continue.
Vietnam was ranked second and Costa Rica was ranked third. The US was ranked 54th and Iran last.
The university said, “While the data cannot fully say how ready countries are to leave lockdown, it does provide for a rough comparison across nations.”
It said “only a handful” of countries are doing well at the checklist at the moment.
At a press briefing on Wednesday morning, Minister of Health Terrence Deyalsingh said he was glad the university had done such a study. He also took a copy to the briefing.
He said, “That is testimony to what we have been saying all along – that our response to covid19, led by the Prime Minister, was a robust one, and we will only get this type of recognition outside of TT.
“What this speaks to is that the world is recognising the decision not to flip a switch and just open back your economy is the correct way.”
He reminded the public that Dr Rowley said his decisions will be guided by science, “with the sole objective of saving lives.”
He said the study is a good one that paints TT in an “excellent light.”
CEO of the TT Chamber of Commerce Gabriel Faria commended the Health Ministry on the achievement, saying it has been doing “excellent work.”
“I’m confident in the leadership of the Ministry of Health, from the minister to the Chief Medical Officer and the rest of the team, that they will guide us through this process responsibly.”
But he said an ideal situation would have been for the government to support closed businesses by providing them with fiscal support, so they could remain closed for “as long as we can.”
But he noted that as in many other countries, “unlimited support” is not possible, so lives and livelihoods have to be weighed against each other. He said the economy can be restarted responsibly.
Asked if he feels TT will be affected by the US’s low rank, which means it may not relax measures anytime soon, he said, “We are not solely dependent on the US for our supplies, so many of our manufacturers and importers have identified alternative sources of supply. This was highlighted when China could not provide products to TT early in February this year.”
But he reiterated, the Health Ministry is doing “an excellent job.”
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"Trinidad and Tobago ranked high in readiness to relax covid19 lockdown"