Trinidad to lift most COVID-19 restrictions

Port Of Spain – Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley on Saturday announced the removal of most of the restrictions that were implemented due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

Speaking during a news conference on Saturday afternoon, Rowley said the restrictions to be lifted include the re­moval of the Safe Zone sys­tem as of April 4 and a change in the re­quire­ment of PCR tests to en­ter the twin island republic to Anti­gen tests, effective Sunday.

The Prime Minister also announced the removal of  all re­stric­tions re­gard­ing rivers and beach­es and the removal of limits to  pub­lic gath­er­ings. These restrictions will be also lifted on April 4.

Concerning gatherings such as public fetes, Rowley said that people will be asked to exercise control.

“We are not telling you don’t par­ty, don’t have a beer, don’t go to a bar . . . the gov­ern­ment is no longer telling you what to do,” Row­ley said.

Concerning the re­quire­ment to wear masks in pub­lic spaces – he said this will remain in place ex­cept in sport­ing ac­tiv­i­ties.

Rowley also warned that the coun­try was not ful­ly yet at a place where life could con­tin­ue with­out cau­tion.

“We in T&T can say that our sit­u­a­tion has con­sid­er­ably im­proved but we cannot say that the pan­dem­ic is over,” he said.

The prime min­is­ter thanked all mem­bers of the health sec­tor, say­ing they rose to the chal­lenge in deal­ing with the ef­fects of the pan­dem­ic. (CMC)