PM happy to have daughter home for Xmas

THE Prime Minister is very happy to have his daughter Sonel Rowley-Stewart home for Christmas.

On Monday, Dr Rowley said, "Yes, my daughter is at home in Trinidad. So I am very happy." Rowley said it was no secret that Sonel and her husband Stephan Stewart were back in TT.

"She came in on the last flight and has been in quarantine since last Wednesday."

He continued, "In keeping with the Chief Medical Officer's directives and health protocols, she will remain in quarantine until this mid-week, then she and her husband will re-enter the family."

Sonel and Stephan live in New York. She is a child psychologist. He works with banking investment company Goldman Sachs.

Rowley said, "I waited a year to get her home from a place that is so scary."

He added that she was working in a hospital in New York.

"To think that she will be going back to that battle ground in the US in the New Year is very sobering and a little scary especially in the face of reports of a new strain (of covid19)."

The emergence of what appears to be a new mutant strain of covid19 in southeast England, has caused some countries to suspend flights to the United Kingdom for 48 hours or more.

Canada, France, Germany, Israel, Iran, Colombia and Morocco are among a dozen countries which have taken this action. The report also said Saudi Arabia has closed its borders and suspended all flights regardless of destination or origin.

At a news conference at the Diplomatic Centre in St Ann's on July 13, Rowley said Sonel wanted to return home because her sister Tonya was having a baby but she was not even encouraged to apply.

“I lived through the trauma of the New York situation with a daughter at ground zero (for covid19) in New York.”

He said then, he has very close family members in Texas and California who are afraid to leave their homes because of covid19.

“I understand personally what people are feeling.”

At that time, Rowley explained the number of TT nationals who are being allowed to return home was based on how many can be handled, and so far thousands have been brought back safely.

“Nobody has been abandoned. Nobody is being punished. And there is no deliberate policy to trample on anybody’s rights. But we are doing it where we are trying to protect everybody’s life, especially those persons within the border of TT."

At another news conference at the Diplomatic Centre on December 4, Rowley said Sonel applied for an exemption to return home and he hoped she would be among the TT nationals being allowed to return home for Christmas. At that time, National Security Minister Stuart Young said 15,471 applications had been received from TT nationals who were trying to return home. Young also said that up to December 4, some 8,500 exemptions had been granted to people to re-enter TT.