Proof positive

THE POLICE are investigating and Minister of National Security Fitzgerald Hinds is on the case. But the breach of our covid19 travel systems this week with the entry of a passenger who was infected with the omicron variant nonetheless raises unsettling questions.

Officials say the individual faces serious consequences, including a stiff penalty, for boarding a flight while being covid19-positive.

But the position in relation to the airline involved has not been as definitive – a sign that our ability to hold to account equally (if not more) culpable corporate actors lags far behind our ability to prosecute individuals.

We have no jurisdiction over what happens at airports in other countries. But we do have a say in which airlines get to operate at our airports and under what terms. Assuming some wrong was done or some negligence occurred – and the nitty-gritty details are yet to be spelled out as they should – there is a range of sanctions that could be applied, from issuing a warning to imposing a fine.

Repeated breaches could even attract the extreme sanction of barring any airline guilty of a culture of negligence. Such a move might seem overly harsh – not to mention inconvenient for a country that relies heavily on air links – but when considered against the disproportionate impact of such breaches on public health it would be justified.

Meanwhile, there are serious questions now in relation to the Ministry of National Security’s “TT Travel Pass” system.

Officials have suggested this online system relies on the honesty of the traveller: no real-time checks are done to ensure representations made digitally actually correspond with the documents submitted. This is a basic check that should occur long before a passenger presents in person – and possibly infectious – at an airline counter or at Piarco Airport after a flight.

Further, authorities from the Ministry of Health on Monday assured all the passengers who were within two rows of the covid19-positive passenger were tested and quarantined, in conformance with international health agency guidance.

However, it is not clear how applicable that guidance is, given this was a case of a newly confirmed variant of a new pandemic, which has already been identified as even more transmissible than the delta variant and which is still being studied.

There is room for saying authorities should adopt an over-cautious approach, above and beyond what might be set out as a bare minimum, even if there is a belief that air filtration systems on planes militate against transmission.

Such an overabundance of caution is also required for the Christmas season.

This week, Minister of Health Terrence Deyalsingh at last began to give more definitive warnings to the public in relation to the holidays. Let us hope the Prime Minister will be even more definitive and indeed prescriptive in his scheduled address to the country today.