Coronavirus in T&T – Week 2
It’s hard to believe that it’s only two weeks today that our first Coronavirus case was announced. Now there are 61 confirmed cases and, sadly, our first death was announced last night. I think we can discount the special case of 44 infected nationals who came off a cruise ship and were part of a group of 68 souls thus isolated at a resort in Balandra. Even though at least 2 of the other cases had previously come off the same ship, I feel our real count is therefore 17 cases, all imported and including 1 primary case (from the household of one of the infected persons).
These figures don’t look too bad, but our country has only just received a good supply of testing kits from China and we are only now bringing other testing machines on stream. This means that we have only just started testing non-travelers for cases of community spread. See all the new jargon that has entered our vocabulary?
Our government has taken strict and rapid measures to contain the spread of this deadly virus. The Prime Minister has just announced that all non-essential businesses are to close from Sunday midnight! They had already passed laws enforcing the closure of bars, clubs, cinemas, churches, etc. They have declared mandatory self-quarantine for 14 days for all arrivals to our country, with stiff penalties for abuse and with monitoring by the police. Oh, they closed our borders earlier this week to non-essential travelers. There’s now a lot of controversy over whether nationals stuck outside the country should be allowed back in. There are sizable groups stuck in Margarita, Suriname and Barbados, but the government is standing firm on this issue so as not to put a strain on our limited health system.
Now, I’m not in a position to judge others who decided to take a chance and go on their much-anticipated cruise in some exotic part of the world, when they could see the melt-down from this pandemic starting to spread across the globe. If my trip to Patagonia (see last posting) had been just one week earlier, I would now be stuck in Argentina with my tour group of 20. At the time, South America was largely unaffected and I challenge anyone to make the correct decision to cancel that expensive trip when there seemed no good reason. Hindsight is a wonderful thing and I thank God for our lucky escape.
I suspect that even more stringent measures will be announced soon as it’s clear that the general population is not taking this situation seriously enough. People say they are locked-down at home but then admit that they go to the grocery and never thought to sanitise the goods when they unpack them at home. I know people who believe that this is all an unnecessary fuss and we shouldn’t get paranoid.
Well, until people behave as if they are truly afraid of catching the Coronavirus, then I am not associating with anyone (only a very few trusted exceptions) as I don’t know if they have taken the necessary precautions to protect themselves or those around them. Everyone is entitled to make their own decisions (within the confines of the new laws being imposed) and each person is responsible for their own safety and that of their household. I just don’t want to be affected by someone else’s careless choices.
This is a very difficult time for everyone – emotionally, financially and possibly health-wise. I have close relatives in the UK with COVID-19; mild cases, thank goodness, but it’s a worry. Prayer might help, good advice and funny jokes are always welcome, keeping busy, exercising, etc., all essential, but I think what we really need right now to keep us safe, is acceptance of this extraordinary situation and a healthy dose of FEAR! Treat everything and everyone entering your home as if they are crawling with a deadly virus. Maybe they are.
“This too will pass.”
