Health Ministry can't say if Brazilian-variant covid19 patient was illegal migrant

Health Minister Terrrence Deyalsingh has publicly confirmed this country's first recorded case of the Brazilian variant of the covid19 virus (P1) was a Venezuelan.

But he said whether that person had entered legally or illegally is a matter for the National Security Ministry to figure out.

He was speaking at the Health Ministry's virtual press conference on Wednesday morning.

Asked by a reporter whether the patient was a registered migrant, he said, "Whether the person is a legal or illegal immigrant rests with National Security. We would have supplied the name of the person and National Security will make that determination...We made the information available to the Minister of National Security (Fitzgerald Hinds).

"What we do at the Ministry of Health is contact tracing, and that information can also be shared with National Security. So, I think the question has been asked and the question has been answered."

Nine cases of the P1 variant have been identified in Trinidad and Tobago.