Tobago stepped up covid19 measures for holiday weekend

The managers of two villas in Tobago took no chances for the holiday weekend as they increased sanitising and private security patrols to prevent gatherings last week.

Speaking with Newsday on Wednesday, Maria Serrano, property manager of Tobago Housing Resorts Ltd, said while she did not see a large influx of visitors, the villas' security officers did their part to prevent people congregating on the beaches or the properties.

"The occupancy over the weekend was more or less the same as what we've seen throughout the year," she said. "Any visitors we saw would have been Trinis who own condos and came over to make sure everything was okay with their properties.

"We had our security do their patrols on the beach to ensure there weren't any parties or gatherings, and we also set up a schedule for the use of our communal pool to make sure all of the guests don't come out to use it at the same time, to limit physical interaction."

Newsday also spoke to Sophie Hoade, supervisor of Island Investment Co Ltd, who said staff at the guest houses and villas also did their part in observing the public health regulations.

"In addition to the sanitising and the cleaning, we've also stopped doing back-to-back bookings to ensure guests are spaced out properly.

"For the holiday weekend we didn't see a lot of Trinidadians – most of the guests we had were Tobagonians – but we ensured they filled out a form where they would state how many people would be visiting. If the guest wanted to have an event, they wouldn't be allowed to do so."

Contacted for comment, police media ambassador for the Tobago Division acting Insp Alicia Piggott said police kept a close vigil on beaches and public areas to prevent overcrowding.

"There were police officers on patrol across the beaches, which were a normal occurrence since the beginning of the covid19 pandemic last year, and I know there were some off-duty officers who were hired by other entities for extra duties."

Piggott also said reports of overcrowding at No Man's Land were under investigation, and there were no other reports of parties of gatherings for the New Year.

Newsday sent an e-mail to Caribbean Airlines (CAL) for figures on how many people travelled to Tobago for the holiday weekend, but had not received a response up to press time.