Rowley: Limers, bars putting us at risk

THE Prime Minister said limers and bars were the greatest threat to TT in the spread of covid19 and will now be subject to greater oversight by the police.

He spoke at a briefing on Wednesday at the Diplomatic Centre, St Ann's.

"The biggest risk we are facing now in the population of TT, having withdrawn the children from school, is the liming and drinking and eating out at restaurants and bars. We have had one or two instances of tracing that took us to those locations.

"Bars and restaurants remain a threat. We are doubling up our monitoring of bars and restaurants on a daily basis and this morning I have once again spoken to the Minister of National Security (Stuart Young) to speak to the Commissioner of Police (Gary Griffith) to speak to his charges to enforce the law."

He said the population must be protected from an irresponsible minority of people by the relevant laws being enforced.

"People who are organising parties and people who are going to parties and congregating are being irresponsible and are threatening the national well-being. I want to see the laws enforced to the limit, otherwise everything we are doing could be put at risk." He said TT cannot financially afford another lockdown.

Barkeepers and Operators Association of TT interim president Teron Mohan on Wednesday denied that bars were any such threat as suggested by Rowley. He said if bars truly were such a threat, more would have been shut down. He said two or three such establishments where a covid19 patient had visited had been identified, shut, sanitised and then re-opened. He asked for proof that most of the infected people had been in bars.

Mohan reckoned the authorities were simply getting notions of the existence of a super spreader from US news sources, but this was not the reality in TT. He said bars now do a temperature check before entry, ensure hand sanitising and mask wearing, and ask patrons to provide their names and contact details. Bars, he said, are taking precautions that not even shops and restaurants are. Mohan said his association has met Griffith to seek an additional police presence.