Our Attorney General has stated that we must wear masks anywhere outside our homes for the foreseeable future; until the world conquers COVID-19! This is now the law, and applies in any situation where we are in a public place. It applies in our cars or in a boat, for example, once we are not alone, even with members of our own household. This apparently will aid police officers in spotting transgressors easily and avoids long road blocks while they question occupants of cars. The fine for a first offence is $1,000 and can apply to children (or their carers) from eight years and older.
So I did a quick inventory of my supply of masks, mostly cloth. I find the ones that tie behind my head fit the best, but the disposable and lighter ones are better for heavy breathing when I’m exercising. We just have to get used to this ‘new normal’. I now actually feel quite unsafe around anyone in close proximity who does not have their face covered. I’m glad that I can use the fact that it’s the law to point out that they must wear a mask properly. I must say that the local media (radio, television, newspapers) are doing a great job of encouraging people to abide by the Coronavirus safety precautions.
The situation is getting frightening. Since my last post two weeks ago, there have been 1,166 new, confirmed active cases of COVID-19 and 18 deaths in Trinidad and Tobago. This represents a total of 2,030 cases and 30 deaths since March. There are 6 people still in ICU, which means they are probably on ventilators, and not many survive that situation.
Testing has zoomed up to about 23,500 unique patient tests to date. The Ministry of Health has ordered 160,000 high accuracy, rapid testing antigen kits which are due to arrive next week. However, the long backlog is still delaying reporting of results for many anxiety-filled weeks. The system was so strained that they allowed all state-quarantined persons, who have tested negative, to continue their quarantine at home where possible. This means we are relying on Trinis behaving sensibly!!!! The upside is that they will now allow all remaining nationals to come home if they so wish, and they can do home-quarantine rather than state-quarantine, once they are low risk of carrying the virus.
Now my dentist is asking if I have been in contact with anyone tested positive or recently come into the country. Presumably if I said ‘yes’ then they won’t treat me. It’s such a performance getting medical service – calling from my car when I arrive, mask on, temperature check, hand sanitisation, mouth wash for one minute, wash hands afterwards, and mask on again. It must be pretty scary to be a health care worker these days.
As our AG says, this mask-wearing law is an “opportunity to instil discipline in our society” and we must avoid “smart(wo)manism”. Good luck to that!
Keep safe, everyone, and don’t forget to mask up!
