Where does TT stand in covid19 war?

WITH relatively low covid19 numbers and highly tourism-dependent economies, several Caribbean states, like Antigua and Barbuda, and St Lucia started to welcome back international tourists for non-essential travel months ago.

Many are not currently allowing tourists, but no other state in the region, or elsewhere for that matter, that Newsday can identify, has imposed such tight restrictions against its own citizens and residents returning home as TT.

Barbados, a stop for TT citizens who were abroad and received exemptions to return home, has still seen low covid19 rates, in comparison to Jamaica, TT and Guyana, yet its borders are also open to non-essential travellers. On October 24, the Prime Minister, in lifting some restrictions, spoke briefly about citizens stranded abroad.

He said exemptions had been given to some 100 people to return home from Barbados, but only 38 were on the flight. He suggested the remainder “changed their minds.”

But one person who recently arrived from Barbados said it is highly unlikely most of them, if any, simply changed their minds. The returning national said, for one thing, “Exemptions are given a day or two before the flight, so people who are in (the UK) or other countries don’t have enough time to get to Barbados in time for the flight.

Secondly, he said, the cost of a flight from Barbados to Piarco is US$420, “which is a huge barrier to people who have been stuck out (of TT) for seven months or more at huge financial expense.”  The number of local covid19 fatalities stands at 106.

Many of TT’s Caricom neighbours have long reopened their borders, and even per capita, their rates of transmission do not appear to be substantially different from this country’s. Several have fewer cases and deaths per capita, with better testing capacity than TT’s.

TT LOW FOR TESTS

TT and Guyana rank among the lowest in the region for tests administered per capita, with data showing both countries have tested only one person for every 44 people, while Barbados has tested one of every nine. Jamaica has tested one in 32 people and the Bahamas, one in 12.

Regionally, the British Virgin Islands has its borders open only to permanent residents and naturalised citizens. Anyone who wants to return needs to register online. Arrivals must quarantine for 14 days. Bermuda, a British overseas territory, reopened to all international travellers since July 1. Barbados followed two weeks later.

Both, however, require visitors to provide recent covid19 test results, depending on the level of risk posed by the country of origin.In Barbados, tests must be taken at an accredited or certified facility/laboratory within three days before arrival.

St Kitts and Nevis closed its borders to international travellers, except for returning nationals and residents. The airport is set to reopen on October 31. On arrival, all citizens must quarantine for 14 days.

Jamaica opened its borders to all international travellers in mid-June. Of course, Jamaica and many other Caribbean states remain far more dependent on tourism for economic survival than TT, Trinidad especially.

And, with the pandemic raging in the US (which accounts for the largest number of regional tourists), many islands have deemed it medium to high risk, often tightening restrictions for US visitors.

Different countries have different criteria for determining the risk posed by visitors from certain countries.

While TT’s citizens have been left to wonder when they can return home, many other Caribbean states have been focused recently on getting its tourism sector back up and running.

WHO AGAINSTLOCKDOWNS

The Caribbean Public Health Agency recently announced new tools as part of its Traveller’s Health Programme, set to launch on November 5. The system essentially provides an early monitoring and response system to public health issues that affect tourism.

Barbados – the usual stop for TT’s citizens who receive exemptions before arriving home – has seen among the fewest cases and deaths per capita in the region. Barbados and Antigua and Barbuda have recorded 24 and 31 deaths (per million citizens), respectively, in stark contrast to Guyana with 149 deaths per million.

On crackdowns as a means to combat the virus, about two weeks ago, Dr David Nabarro, World Health Organization (WHO) special envoy on covid19 , in an interview with British magazine The Spectator, said, “We in the World Health Organization do not advocate lockdowns as the primary means of control of this virus.

“The only time we believe a lockdown is justified is to buy you time to reorganise, regroup, rebalance your resources, protect your health workers who are exhausted, but by and large, we’d rather not do it.”

Lockdowns, he said, “just have one consequence that you must never, ever belittle, and that is making poor people an awful lot poorer.

“Look what’s happened to smallholder farmers all over the world. Look what’s happening to poverty levels. It seems that we may well have a doubling of world poverty by next year. We may well have at least a doubling of child malnutrition.”

In June, a WHO official said scientists had not yet determined the extent to which people with asymptomatic cases of covid19 pass the disease on to other, shortly after WHO said spread in such cases was “very rare.”

Large countries like Germany, France and the UK have recently introduced lockdowns according to city and region as opposed to the entire state. In several French cities, restaurants, bars, movie theatres and other establishments are mandated to close at 9pm. In Britain, a three-tier system to battle the pandemic recently went into effect, with each level further tightening restrictions.