Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister Keith Rowley speaks during a meeting with China’s Premier Li Keqiang (not pictured) at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China, on May 14, 2018. File photo credit Reuters/Jason Lee.
PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad--Trinidad and Tobago (T&T) decided to impose a state of emergency from midnight on Saturday to contain an increase of COVID-19 cases and related deaths, Prime Minister Keith Rowley revealed on Saturday.
Rowley also imposed a curfew from 9:00pm to 5:00am local time, with some exceptions for essential services, including the energy sector, supermarkets and pharmacies.
The twin-island state was experiencing a third wave of COVID-19, Rowley said.
Seven hospitals caring for COVID-19 patients were at a critical stage of 73 per cent overall occupancy on Saturday, Principal Medical Officer Dr. Maryam Abdool-Richards added.
With a population of more than 1.3 million people, Trinidad and Tobago has registered 15,375 infections, 5,214 of them active, and 265 deaths, health ministry data showed.
Health officials have cited a highly transmissible Brazilian variant, first identified in a Venezuelan migrant, as a factor in the increase in cases.
Some 60,500 people have received their first vaccine dose but only 1,000 of these have received a second dose. ~ Reuters ~
