Rowley to Kamla: I had no covid19 symptoms two weeks ago

The Prime Minister has lashed out at Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar for telling untruths about his covid19 diagnosis.

On Friday, Persad-Bissessar and her UNC MPs boycotted the sitting of the House of Representatives over fears of contracting the virus following Dr Rowley’s positive diagnosis on April 6.

She later suggested during a news briefing at her Port of Spain office that MPs could become super-spreaders of the virus.

Persad-Bissessar said people who attended Rowley’s news conference at the Diplomatic Centre, St Ann’s on March 27, including Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh and Chief Medical Officer Dr Roshan Parasram, should be in isolation.

She also expressed concern for the safety of the Parliament’s staff and of the MPs’ constituents.

Persad-Bissessar accused the Government of breaking its own laws in relation to section 12 of the coronavirus regulations No 7, which gives the health minister the power to segregate and isolate an individual who was exposed to infection and likely to suffer from the virus.

But in a post on his Facebook page on Saturday, Rowley made it clear he had no symptoms of covid19 when he held his last media briefing, two weeks ago.

“It falls to me to confirm that I had no symptoms on Friday 26 and Saturday 27 March as untruthfully presented by the Opposition Leader in her quest to politicise my medical condition,” he said.

The PM, who is currently under medical care at his official residence in Blenheim, Tobago, said his flu-like symptoms first appeared on the night of April 5 and he was tested and confirmed positive for covid19 on April 6.

Rowley said the standard protocol is that once symptoms are observed, contacts will be checked two to three days prior.

“This means that the contacts in Parliament on March 26 and at a press conference on March 27 do not qualify under the protocols for tracing.”

He continued: “That is why she had to lie to make the case that there was a breach of the protocols and the breaking of laws by the Government officials.”

Rowley further accused Persad-Bissessar of politicising his medical records.

“What the Opposition Leader has disgracefully done is play politics with lies and my medical record, which I have voluntarily made public in my continuing openness with the population of Trinidad and Tobago.”

Rowley, in his post, also said “contrary to their misinformation there is no need for any extra sanitising of Parliament to allow them to come back since hat they claim never occurred.

“This being so, it is now clear that it is when she returns to the Parliament, that hopefully it will be sanitised so that decency and the truth may find a seat amongst them. The country may certainly be better off for it.”

During a news conference on Friday, after the UNC’s boycott of the sitting, House Leader Camille Robinson-Regis also accused the Opposition of playing politics.

She said parliamentary protocols during the pandemic meant MPs faced little risk of contracting the virus.