Minister slams Kamla's quarantine claim

HEALTH Minister Terrence Deyalsingh on Thursday rejected the Opposition Leader's claim that Government will impose a mandatory covid19 quarantine fee for all returning TT nationals. Deyalsingh said 261 returning nationals have been quarantined at the state's expense to date.

He continued, "We will continue to quarantine, free of charge, returning nationals on the schedule agreed to by the Ministry of National Security and the Ministry of Health." Deyalsingh explained, "Over and beyond that, if anybody else wants to come in (to TT), out of that schedule, they are free to pay for their quarantine."

He said, "This exceptional circumstance to pay for quarantine will be applied to a limited small number of persons."

Deyalsingh said an example could be "employers who wish to bring in employees."

He explained the employer would pay for the employees to be quarantined but they (employees) would be "under the supervision of the Chief Medical Officer." Deyalsingh said Kamla Persad-Bissessar is "totally out of sync and once again receiving bad medical advice from her three doctors."

Deyalsingh added, "We will take no medical advice from the Opposition Leader and her three doctors."

Deyalsingh explained that parallel health system established to deal with covid19 has a total of 948 beds (196 in stepdown facilities, 210 in convalescent facilities and 542 beds in hospital settings).

"As far as quarantining people is concerned, you do not put them in a hospital setting. You have to minus 542 from the 948. That leaves you with 406 beds.

"Because we are dealing with potentially infectious disease, we try as much as possible to not go up to 100 per cent or utilise all 406 beds. So we try to use about 300 beds."

Deyalsingh said if a covid19 positive patient is in a convalescent or step down facility, that facility must be decontaminated and not be used for two weeks. He said these facilities are not hotels "where a guest leaves and two hours later, you use the room."

Referring to a Trinidad Guardian story, Persad-Bissessar said Government must scrap any plan to implement a "cruel, unfair and possibly illegal quarantine fee for citizens." She also claimed many returning nationals would be unable to pay quarantine fees. Persad-Bissessar reiterated the Opposition's claims that Government was misleading the population about its efforts to curb covid19.

The Ministry of Health in a statement said it is and will be the Government's policy to provide free quarantine services via the parallel health care system, as it has already done for 261 returning nationals.

"The inflow of these nationals is a carefully managed process based on the number of nationals seeking re-entry, as provided by the Ministry of National Security, and the number of available quarantine beds."

"There is being explored the possibility of permitting a very limited number of persons to return and cover for themselves, the costs of being quarantined under state supervision."

This is being envisaged for workers with jobs outside of TT whose employers were willing to pay for their return and the costs of accommodation.

"The number of those that may be facilitated in this category would still be limited by the number of suitable available accommodations. Also, all returning nationals are to abide by the national quarantine policy as directed by the Chief Medical Officer."