Port Of Spain – As health officials urged the population not to panic about the discovery of the United Kingdom variant of COVID-19 here, Minister of Health Terrence Deyalsingh on Friday said there would be no new restrictions or protocols in the twin-island republic.
Speaking at a virtual press conference a day after the Ministry of Health disclosed that a Trinidadian national had returned to the twin-island republic carrying the UK COVID-19 Variant of Concern (Variant B117), he said this “index case has been successfully contained” by the existing quarantine protocols.
Research has suggested that the UK strain is more easily spread from person to person than previous strains. It is estimated to be 50 per cent more transmissible.
Although not denying the case was of concern to authorities, Deyalsingh said the country would respond “calmly, logically and in the best interest of all”.
“The message to the public today is one of heightened concern, and we are going to be continually reviewing the epidemiological evidence as we have been doing since the start of the pandemic. Now is a time for all of us to be even more vigilant,” he said.
“It is one case so far but we are continually reviewing the evidence. At this point in time, it is not the intention of the Ministry of Health to recommend any further restrictions; that is counterproductive . . . . But we are asking people not to gather.
“Whilst this new variant at this time is not in the general population . . . the only and best tool or weapon we have against the virus right now are the public health measures,” the minister added.
“It is too early to make knee-jerk, panic reactions. We don’t do that. We will have a considered, well thought out response for the population.”
As of January 19, 60 countries and territories outside the UK have reported imported cases or community transmission of Variant B117.
The Ministry of Health said Thursday that the presence of the strain here was confirmed via a gene sequencing study at the Faculty of Medical Sciences, University of the West Indies, which has been testing COVID-19 positive samples collected since September 2020. (CMC)
