The covid19 test is just starting

THE MINISTER of Health, in one of those covid19 updates, said, “adherence to protocols has saved TT.” While the intent behind his point was reasonably clear, the choice of words was unfortunate.

The suggestion that TT has been saved from the worst of covid19 is exactly the opposite message to what should be put into the wind. Trinis don’t need much prodding to revert to type. It isn’t a stretch to imagine our people interpreting the words “saved TT” as an all-clear to ramajay. This is particularly true given the reality that our supposed adherence to protocols is flimsy at best.

The entire country is straining at the leash for the lifting of so-called restrictions. For many thinking people, there is a lingering miasma of doubt – a sense that Trinis haven’t grasped the true covid19 test will come after lockdown.

The stay-at-home order was an extraordinary sacrifice for the population, albeit wildly disproportionate. Limiting the spread of infection, though, is easier with closed borders and limitations on interpersonal contact in office environments, shopping centres and the like.

Depending on how the economy and borders are reopened and the way we begin our slow crawl back into daylight, only then can we truly judge our defences against covid19.

Make no mistake about it, this contagion is just waiting for us to drop our guard – to become laissez-faire once more.

There are few civilisations on this planet that do reckless abandon quite like Trinis. The lockdown ought to have been used as a period to inculcate behaviours and routines that will save lives after covid19 leaves the headlines but not the environment. There’s lots of anecdotal evidence that many people haven’t bought in.

I got a funny/terrifying story from someone who visited a well-known food manufacturing facility recently. While the individual (who told me the story) was wearing a mask, there was not a single soul in that facility wearing a face covering of any variety. All they wore on their faces were looks of incredulity, staring at this masked weirdo like he was either an alien or some kinda anableps.

While quite a few people have taken to mask-wearing in public, many can’t be bothered. There have been several occasions where I’ve had to vacate shops into which unmasked people had stepped and aerosolised their morning chatter.

On another one of my observer missions, I examined the behaviour of a trio of workers employed with one of the largest food distribution companies on the island. They were making their round of deliveries in my community and stopped at a parlour that doesn’t make joke with their covid19 protocols.

Taped to the door of this shop is a large laminated poster indicating no one will be let in without a mask. Only one person is allowed in at a time. Of the three men on that delivery crew, only one was wearing a mask.

Now, this isn’t really about masks. For the most part, people have taken to fashionable fabric masks of dubious efficacy. The casualness about protective measures and optional social distancing, however, send worrying signals about our readiness to face the covid19 menace post-lockdown. Under alleged stay-at-home restrictions, there were countless examples of looser interpretations of essential services and activities.

Once businesses are allowed to reopen, it’s likely many Trinis will abandon all protection protocols like a burning building. People will descend on KFC and doubles vendors like locusts on Moses’ Egypt.

Many food service industry workers in this country find it impossible to avoid carrying out full-throated conversations over the food they’re preparing and serving. They will need to be fitted with some sort of WHO-approved muzzle.

Without maintaining social distancing measures, cheek-to-cheek and butt-to-butt crowding in the aisles of groceries will resume. Lines at the cashier will become conga lines once more.

Running conversations among chatty grocery shelf-stackers filling up the gaps in the social distances never actually went away. The grocery chains may have to put those loquacious lollygaggers on the night shift to reduce congestion in their store aisles.

On the factory floors, in office spaces, in our shopping centres – the true test of our ability to thwart covid19 begins now. Assumptions that TT has been saved are premature. Our borders can’t stay closed indefinitely. Even with a phased introduction to a new normal, citizens will need to be vigilant for a long time to come if we are to deny covid19 its quota of prey.