Health Minister not greatly concerned about covid19 spread from protests

Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh said he is not greatly concerned about the possibility of community spread arising out of Tuesday’s protests.

He said while there is always a concern for spread where people are congregated, there was not much cause for concern after crowds were dispersed on Tuesday afternoon. He said concerns were lessened because people were outside and not packed together, as would happen in a bar.

The minister also said he was not pleased with the level of mask-wearing by the general public, although he said this had nothing to do with government being slow to fulfil its promise of handing out masks. The Finance Minister said on Saturday that contracts have been awarded to “small stitchers” through Nipdec for the manufacture of 465,000 cloth face masks, which would be given to various NGOs including FEEL, to distribute to the population free of charge. However, the tender for these contracts was put out on April 14.

Deyalsingh said he wanted to see more people wearing masks in critical areas such as public transportation where social distancing was not possible and close contact was inevitable. He said people were not wearing masks because there was complacency in the population as the curve had been flattened and most covid19 cases had been imported.

The CMO said he agreed people should be wearing masks in areas such as public transportation. He said some people were also not wearing masks in open spaces as they should, even when an allowance is made for social distancing.