Senator Deyalsingh calls on nation to pray for PM

INDEPENDENT Senator Dr Varma Deyalsingh is calling on the country to pray for the Prime Minister, who has been diagnosed covid19-positive.

“The nation needs to pray for Dr Rowley’s health and continue to exercise precautions, as we are seeing an increase in cases,” he told the Newsday in a WhatsApp message.

Deyalsingh was in the Senate, debating the wearing of masks, which he had asked to be mandatory.

He had also suggested a fine for those breaching social distancing, “as persons still encroach your personal space in queues.”

He said he had urged Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh “to observe better protocols in the press conferences, When I saw the PM and Minister of Health and CMO (Dr Roshan Parasram) sitting very close at the table, I warned the age and previous health concerns of our prime minister would put him in a precarious position and better precautions should be maintained,” he said.

He noted, though, that both British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and then president of the United States Donald Trump had had covid19 and had survived it.

Deyalsingh said he is not registered to take the vaccine, which began to be rolled out on Tuesday in both Trinidad and in Tobago after the country received 33,000 AstraZeneca doses.

“I have an existing autoimmune disorder and I am on medication which prevents me from taking it," he explained. “I have to hope with the population herd immunity, prayers and precaution, I will manage. The covid19 virus has changed life for me as I once knew it.”

The Prime Minister who spent the Easter weekend in Tobago, was expected to be vaccinated there on Tuesday afternoon.

But on Tuesday morning a release from the OPM said he had tested positive for the virus. Rowley reportedly began having flu-like symptoms on Monday evening and was tested for the virus. He is in isolation and under medical supervision.

In the past weeks there have been a steady rise in the number of cases in Trinidad and Tobago. The death toll stands at 145.