COVID-19 in Trinidad & Tobago (Local Updates & Discussions Only)

[MaxPower]

Its not a good idea to open our borders right now.

Things are stabilized nicely....for now, but lets not let our guard down just yet. You do not want us to get a wave and then we have these 33 idiots wanting to come in. Its an unwanted burden at this time. These people are not dying or starving and they can wait it out regardless of their little pathetic rants.

Give them an update after the 30th, stay put in the mean time.

I mean these people serious?

So inconsiderate of them to even “hire” a flight and put all involved at risk in this crisis.

But a nex fool collecting a money from this so he now have to pull people out of the safety of their homes to come out to work for these irresponsible Trini pests.

Be strong T&T.

[Gladiator]

I say let them come home man... just manage it well and there would be nothing to fear. Put some rules down for them; they must have on masks on disembarking, send a maxi on the runway to pick them up and drop them off straight into quarantine for a mandatory 14 days.

I sure more than 33 Vene come in via pirogue for the month so far...

[Dohplaydat]

Adjustments.JPG

Its not a good idea to open our borders right now.

Things are stabilized nicely....for now, but lets not let our guard down just yet. You do not want us to get a wave and then we have these 33 idiots wanting to come in. Its an unwanted burden at this time. These people are not dying or starving and they can wait it out regardless of their little pathetic rants.

Give them an update after the 30th, stay put in the mean time.

I mean these people serious?

So inconsiderate of them to even “hire” a flight and put all involved at risk in this crisis.

But a nex fool collecting a money from this so he now have to pull people out of the safety of their homes to come out to work for these irresponsible Trini pests.

Be strong T&T.

K cool bro, i hope you're happy with staying in Lockdown and having borders closed till end of 2021.

[MaxPower]

I say let them come home man... just manage it well and there would be nothing to fear. Put some rules down for them; they must have on masks on disembarking, send a maxi on the runway to pick them up and drop them off straight into quarantine for a mandatory 14 days.

I sure more than 33 Vene come in via pirogue for the month so far...

Hello Gladiator,

A good suggestion but let them come yes, but not now.

Lets manage inside T&T first and save our resources for any possible developments.

And yes, alot more than 33 Vene are coming in, but no one can answer where are their Covid 19 cases?
They are entering illegally, yes, but are acting quite responsibly and adhering to SD.

Are you able to answer why the Govt appears to be unconcerned with the continued Venezuelan influx?

[MaxPower]

Adjustments.JPG

Its not a good idea to open our borders right now.

Things are stabilized nicely....for now, but lets not let our guard down just yet. You do not want us to get a wave and then we have these 33 idiots wanting to come in. Its an unwanted burden at this time. These people are not dying or starving and they can wait it out regardless of their little pathetic rants.

Give them an update after the 30th, stay put in the mean time.

I mean these people serious?

So inconsiderate of them to even “hire” a flight and put all involved at risk in this crisis.

But a nex fool collecting a money from this so he now have to pull people out of the safety of their homes to come out to work for these irresponsible Trini pests.

Be strong T&T.

K cool bro, i hope you're happy with staying in Lockdown and having borders closed till end of 2021.

Morning bro,

Unfortunately, Happiness is not a priority in this pandemic.

[Dohplaydat]

Adjustments.JPG

Its not a good idea to open our borders right now.

Things are stabilized nicely....for now, but lets not let our guard down just yet. You do not want us to get a wave and then we have these 33 idiots wanting to come in. Its an unwanted burden at this time. These people are not dying or starving and they can wait it out regardless of their little pathetic rants.

Give them an update after the 30th, stay put in the mean time.

I mean these people serious?

So inconsiderate of them to even “hire” a flight and put all involved at risk in this crisis.

But a nex fool collecting a money from this so he now have to pull people out of the safety of their homes to come out to work for these irresponsible Trini pests.

Be strong T&T.

K cool bro, i hope you're happy with staying in Lockdown and having borders closed till end of 2021.

Morning bro,

Unfortunately, Happiness is not a priority in this pandemic.

Well it should be, but more importantly, f*cking over the economy can lead to more deaths in the long run.

We need to find a way to live with this Virus until a vaccine becomes available. The fact that you afraid to bring in 33 Trinis who live here and have capacity and awareness to self-isolate means that you not ready to deal with even the smallest outbreak.

Do we not have police officers who can check up on these 33 if you do not trust them? Do we not have hospitals that are under capacity in terms of dealing with Covid-19?

Find solutions, stop avoiding problems. It seems if it were up to you, you'd have us live like North Koreans in total isolation and fear.

[trinigamer]

Bermudez stop making Crix multi grain?

[sMASH]

stay right in barbadoes, dont come back to this lil sheit hole

[bluefete]

Time to reopen the beaches??? Or stand up in my yard and take sun?


Sunlight destroys virus quickly, new govt. tests find, but experts say pandemic could last through summer
Jana Winter and Sharon Weinberger
Jana Winter and Sharon Weinberger-
Yahoo NewsApril 17, 2020, 4:07 PM GMT-4

Preliminary results from government lab experiments show that the coronavirus does not survive long in high temperatures and high humidity, and is quickly destroyed by sunlight, providing evidence from controlled tests of what scientists believed — but had not yet proved — to be true.

A briefing on the preliminary results, marked for official use only and obtained by Yahoo News, offers hope that summertime may offer conditions less hospitable for the virus, though experts caution it will by no means eliminate, or even necessarily decrease, new cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus. The results, however, do add an important piece of knowledge that the White House’s science advisers have been seeking as they scramble to respond to the spreading pandemic.

The study found that the risk of “transmission from surfaces outdoors is lower during daylight” and under higher temperature and humidity conditions. “Sunlight destroys the virus quickly,” reads the briefing.

While that may provide some good news about the outlook for outdoor activities, the Department of Homeland Security briefing on the results cautions that enclosed areas with low humidity, such as airplane cabins, “may require additional care to minimize risk of transmission.”

In a statement to Yahoo News, the DHS declined to answer questions about the findings and strongly cautioned against drawing any conclusions based on unpublished data.

Photo illustration; Yahoo News; photos: Getty Images
Photo illustration; Yahoo News; photos: Getty Images
“The department is dedicated to the fight against COVID-19, and the health and safety of the American people is its top priority. As policy, the department does not comment on allegedly leaked documents,” the DHS said in a statement. “It would be irresponsible to speculate, draw conclusions, or to inadvertently try to influence the public based upon a document that has not yet been peer-reviewed or subjected to the rigorous scientific validation approach.”

The results are contained in a briefing by the DHS science and technology directorate, which describes experiments conducted by the National Biodefense Analysis and Countermeasures Center, a lab created after the 9/11 terrorist attacks to address biological threats.

While the DHS describes the results as preliminary, they may eventually make their way into specific recommendations. “Outdoor daytime environments are lower risk for transmission,” the briefing states.


Simulated sunlight “rapidly killed the virus in aerosols,” the briefing says, while without that treatment, “no significant loss of virus was detected in 60 minutes.”

The tests were performed on viral particles suspended in saliva. They were done indoors in environments meant to mimic various weather conditions.

While the results of these tests have not been previously made public, Harvey Fineberg, head of the National Academies Standing Committee on Emerging Infectious Diseases and 21st Century Health Threats, broadly described plans to conduct the experiments in an April 7 letter to the White House.

In that letter, addressed to President Trump’s top science adviser Kelvin Droegemeier, Fineberg wrote that the DHS lab “is well suited for the kinds of studies they have planned, and the scope and relevance are noteworthy. In particular, they plan to create simulated infected body fluids, including saliva and lower respiratory secretions.”

Droegemeier’s office did not respond to a request for comment on whether it has received the latest results from the DHS. The National Academies also did not respond to a request for comment.

While the lab results are new, scientists for many weeks have predicted, based on available data on the disease’s spread, that warmer, wetter climates would be less hospitable to the spread of the coronavirus. An early analysis by scientists observed that the virus was spreading more slowly in countries with warmer climates.

“We are not saying that at higher temperatures, the virus will suddenly go away and everything would be fine and you are going out,” Qasim Bukhari, a computational scientist at MIT and a co-author of the analysis, told Yahoo News in an interview. “No, we are not saying it. We are just seeing that there is a temperature- and humidity-related dependency, but I think many people now have started to realize this.”

Bukhari said that since he and his colleagues published that analysis, the numbers on the coronavirus’s spread continue to support their contention. “They are doing a lot of tests now in India. Also, when you look at the numbers in Pakistan it’s the same. There are more than 5,000 cases in Pakistan right now,” he said. “But the increase is not as rapid as you see in other countries.”

Women in Islamabad, Pakistan, wait to receive cash from a government program for families in need. (Anjum Naveed/AP)
Women in Islamabad, Pakistan, wait to receive cash from a government program for families in need. (Anjum Naveed/AP)
The question of the effects of sunlight and heat on the coronavirus has been particularly fraught, because there has been a tendency to misinterpret the relationship between good weather and disease spread. Early on, some politicians tried to encourage people to go outside, including to beaches, arguing that sunlight would kill the virus. The problem, however, is that without widespread immunity, people can still transmit the coronavirus to others, even in warm weather.

The real question now, Bukhari said, is whether enough people have already been infected that the summer temperatures won’t prevent continued transmission.

“So let’s say 50 percent of the population is already infected, and then those temperatures arrive and then those humidity levels arrive, then what difference can those temperatures and humidity levels be? Probably none. That’s the thing.”

While the new lab results are important, the science behind how sunlight kills the virus is fairly well established, says Arthur Anderson, former director of the Office of Human Use and Ethics at the United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases at Fort Detrick, Md.

“[Ultraviolet] light breaks DNA into fragments. If the virus is floating around in the air and there’s bright sunlight, the UV component in sunlight will break the DNA or the RNA into pieces,” he told Yahoo News.

Infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci, who has become the leading face of the White House response, has provided cautious statements about what the summer months might mean for the coronavirus, saying recently, “It’s almost certainly going to go down a bit.” He has stopped far short, however, of saying that good weather alone would have an impact.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. (Alex Brandon/AP)
Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. (Alex Brandon/AP)
Yet the lab results may ultimately provide at least some basis for optimism.

“Does this give a little more hope about the virus potentially decreasing?” said Dr. Kavita Patel, a Yahoo medical contributor and nonresident fellow at the Brookings Institution. “Yes. I would say even Dr. Fauci has alluded to that.”

Colds and flus don’t disappear in the summer, even if they are less common, Patel noted. “We do have cases of the flu in the summer,” she said. “That’s why all of us in medicine are being a little more guarded.”

The lab’s work was done in a controlled environment, according to the DHS briefing, and tested how long the coronavirus survives on stainless steel in a droplet of saliva from a cough or sneeze under conditions related to temperature, humidity and sunlight. The lab is now doing additional testing, such as experimenting with low-tech techniques for sterilization of protective equipment, which would include using rice cookers, clothes steamers and electric pressure cookers.

The National Biodefense Analysis and Countermeasures Center, which conducted the experiments, has traditionally kept a low profile because of its classified work on biological warfare defense and bioterrorism. Fineberg, in his letter to the White House, did not go into detail on the planned experiments, noting that the lab shares its findings with the interagency task force on the coronavirus.

It is unclear for now whether the center intends to publish in a peer-reviewed journal or choose some other route for making its results known. Patel said she could understand government concerns about releasing preliminary results, but in general she leans toward openness.

“As a clinical doctor, we want to learn as fast as possible anything that works clinically. You want to be able in the first line to say: This is preliminary, with caveats. But why hold back the information?” she said.

It may be that the government wants to control how the message is released, she suggested. “I would say in a global pandemic, that’s less of a priority.”

https://www.yahoo.com/news/sunlight-des ... 45675.html

[sMASH]

Time to reopen the beaches??? Or stand up in my yard and take sun?


Sunlight destroys virus quickly, new govt. tests find, but experts say pandemic could last through summer

eh heh???
then open back beach and doubles man!!!!!

[maj. tom]

What a fake news twist on already known information. Sunlight and its strong UV kills the virus. And all viruses.
This is something new? Nothing in that article is even information related to COVID-19. Those "journalists" are just making fodder news for clickbait on yahoo. Who the hell gets their news from Yahoo anyway!?

So how you standing in the sunlight going to disinfect the virus that inside your body? You going to sun out your lungs? We should sun out the patients at Caura?

[hydroep]

Vendors out in force this morning even by the Gulf City traffic lights. People clearly eh taking them on again.

Stuarty hadda press the red button...

[hydroep]

So how much the council of elders getting paid?

Or are they doing it as a national contribution?

And as others stated, Dr. Farrell resigned in frustration from the Economic Advisory Board because ALL his hard work and recommendations were ignored.

This board will serve one of two purposes:

a. If their suggestions turn out well, Sh!tkicker and dem will take credit for it.

OR

b. If things go to hell, it will be a scapegoat for the Government.


That aside, the rent-a-cops were paid for the work they did so I don't see why these people shouldn't be paid for their expertise as well...

[sMASH]

Vendors out in force this morning even by the Gulf City traffic lights. People clearly eh taking them on again.

Stuarty hadda press the red button...

no official data to show local or community spread, so let them be.

[paid_influencer]

Vendors out in force this morning even by the Gulf City traffic lights. People clearly eh taking them on again.

Stuarty hadda press the red button...

this better than everybody using the grocery.

groceries are high-traffic areas. the more people we can get away from groceries/markets the safer we will be.

Multiple small distribution points vs one big crowded distribution spot.

[Gladiator]

I say let them come home man... just manage it well and there would be nothing to fear. Put some rules down for them; they must have on masks on disembarking, send a maxi on the runway to pick them up and drop them off straight into quarantine for a mandatory 14 days.

I sure more than 33 Vene come in via pirogue for the month so far...

Hello Gladiator,

A good suggestion but let them come yes, but not now.

Lets manage inside T&T first and save our resources for any possible developments.

And yes, alot more than 33 Vene are coming in, but no one can answer where are their Covid 19 cases?
They are entering illegally, yes, but are acting quite responsibly and adhering to SD.

Are you able to answer why the Govt appears to be unconcerned with the continued Venezuelan influx?

I dunno nah Max... i feel Rowley stockpiling them Venez in preparation for war or something.

BTW it would be much easier to repatriate the 33 people now when there is total control of public movement and strict policing, rather than later when the place more laxed or if we for some reason have some kind of outbreak and the place in chaos.

[dean_spleen09]

these idiots hire a flight and the borders locked ?
good luck with that

[MaxPower]

Adjustments.JPG

Its not a good idea to open our borders right now.

Things are stabilized nicely....for now, but lets not let our guard down just yet. You do not want us to get a wave and then we have these 33 idiots wanting to come in. Its an unwanted burden at this time. These people are not dying or starving and they can wait it out regardless of their little pathetic rants.

Give them an update after the 30th, stay put in the mean time.

I mean these people serious?

So inconsiderate of them to even “hire” a flight and put all involved at risk in this crisis.

But a nex fool collecting a money from this so he now have to pull people out of the safety of their homes to come out to work for these irresponsible Trini pests.

Be strong T&T.

K cool bro, i hope you're happy with staying in Lockdown and having borders closed till end of 2021.

Morning bro,

Unfortunately, Happiness is not a priority in this pandemic.

Well it should be, but more importantly, f*cking over the economy can lead to more deaths in the long run.

We need to find a way to live with this Virus until a vaccine becomes available. The fact that you afraid to bring in 33 Trinis who live here and have capacity and awareness to self-isolate means that you not ready to deal with even the smallest outbreak.

Do we not have police officers who can check up on these 33 if you do not trust them? Do we not have hospitals that are under capacity in terms of dealing with Covid-19?

Find solutions, stop avoiding problems. It seems if it were up to you, you'd have us live like North Koreans in total isolation and fear.

The important thing is for you to remain calm my good lad.

I am in no way afraid of these 33 Trinis, more like disgusted of their unacceptable negligent behavior regardless of how much time has passed. Due to their actions and ignorance, we have sufficient evidence to assume that they are incapable to practice positive awareness and self-isolation. As a result, they should be placed under strict quarantine upon their arrival, to be on the safe side.

The TTPS displays inconsistent competency and they themselves cannot be trusted to babysit these 33 Trinis.

Currently yes, hospitals are under capacity and can comfortably handle 33 Trinis. A relaxed health system does not mean a free for all. Why only those 33 then? Why not bring in those stranded in Suriname and Margarita....and the thousands worldwide? Orr is it because of their situation? What about T&Ts situation? What is the limit that we can accept in our heath facilities and still safe guard for a major outbreak?

The point is DPD, we do not know at this time as we are unable to predict the future impact on society. Have you noticed the sudden spike Jamaica had in cases recently within a 24 hour period? Or is your brain stuck in North Korea?

Find solutions and stop avoiding problems? - One solution is to keep our borders close, thus avoiding the problem. They can enter when we are certain that we have things under control. Oh gosh bro, its 48 hours with no new cases, we’re doing really good so let’s hold it out a little longer even though it may seem “fair” to allow them in.

I mean i dont understand, the more we STAY HOME and STAY PUT the closer to victory. Lets not use sympathy, leniency, like, rather, want and prefer etc to risk it.

Keep well and be safe.

[pugboy]

we curve should be starting to slope down with the ppl going home
we past flattening

[Dave]

I hope it continues like that. Once we are contained with no outside interference then we are all self isolated and give. The weather we have been having could possibly be attributable to how our results are looking.

[The_Honourable]

Coronavirus Outbreak May Have Started as Early as September, Scientists Say

The coronavirus outbreak could have started as early as mid-September, and the Chinese city of Wuhan may not be where it began, a scientist looking at the origins of the disease has said.

Geneticist Peter Forster, from the U.K.'s University of Cambridge, is leading a research project to understand the historical processes that led to the COVID-19 pandemic. Ultimately, they hope to identify the first person who got the virus and served as the source for the initial outbreak. By analyzing networks, they have so far been able to chart the spread of the virus, including the genetic mutations, as it moved from China to Australia, Europe and the rest of the world.

They have created a network analysis using over 1,000 coronavirus genomes. This includes patient infection date and the "type" of virus the person was infected with. There are three types—A, B and C. A is closest to the coronavirus found in bats and is thought to be the original human virus genome. This type was found in Chinese and American individuals, with mutated versions in patients from Australia and the U.S.

However, A was not the virus type found in most cases in Wuhan, the city in China where COVID-19 was first identified. Instead, most people there had type B. Researchers suggest there was a "founder event" for type B in Wuhan. Type C, the "daughter" of type B, is what was identified in early cases in Europe, as well as South Korea, Singapore and Hong Kong—but appears absent from mainland China.

Based on the data Forster and his colleagues have collected, the coronavirus outbreak appears to have started between September 13 and December 7. "This assumes a constant mutation rate, which is admittedly unlikely to be the case, and the time estimate could therefore be wrong," he told Newsweek. "But it is the best assumption we can make at the moment, pending analysis of further patient samples stored in hospitals during 2019."

He said it is possible the outbreak did not originate in Wuhan, as until January 17, almost all the isolates were type B. In Guangdong, a province about 500 miles from Wuhan, seven of the 11 isolates were type A. "These case numbers are small because few genomes are available for the early stage of the outbreak, before the Chinese New Year travel pre-January 25 would have started mixing patterns up geographically," Forster said.

He and colleagues published research into their network in PNAS on April 8.

More: https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/health ... r-BB12MPqU

[maj. tom]

Plenty things to study and learn about this novel virus and its effects. Could take decades to understand it fully.

[jhonnieblue]

we curve should be starting to slope down with the ppl going home
we past flattening

That's the assumption that will make things go bad fast.
We have a population of 1.3 million and only 1300 tests have been done so far. We not even on a statistical curve right now with those figures.

[pugboy]

agreed but we should also be examining any current deaths of flu, pneumonia etc
moh should be giving stats on those deaths
likewise the 900 or so negative tests
did they do follow ups on those persons?

[Dohplaydat]

Adjustments.JPG

Its not a good idea to open our borders right now.

Things are stabilized nicely....for now, but lets not let our guard down just yet. You do not want us to get a wave and then we have these 33 idiots wanting to come in. Its an unwanted burden at this time. These people are not dying or starving and they can wait it out regardless of their little pathetic rants.

Give them an update after the 30th, stay put in the mean time.

I mean these people serious?

So inconsiderate of them to even “hire” a flight and put all involved at risk in this crisis.

But a nex fool collecting a money from this so he now have to pull people out of the safety of their homes to come out to work for these irresponsible Trini pests.

Be strong T&T.

K cool bro, i hope you're happy with staying in Lockdown and having borders closed till end of 2021.

Morning bro,

Unfortunately, Happiness is not a priority in this pandemic.

Well it should be, but more importantly, f*cking over the economy can lead to more deaths in the long run.

We need to find a way to live with this Virus until a vaccine becomes available. The fact that you afraid to bring in 33 Trinis who live here and have capacity and awareness to self-isolate means that you not ready to deal with even the smallest outbreak.

Do we not have police officers who can check up on these 33 if you do not trust them? Do we not have hospitals that are under capacity in terms of dealing with Covid-19?

Find solutions, stop avoiding problems. It seems if it were up to you, you'd have us live like North Koreans in total isolation and fear.

The important thing is for you to remain calm my good lad.

I am in no way afraid of these 33 Trinis, more like disgusted of their unacceptable negligent behavior regardless of how much time has passed. Due to their actions and ignorance, we have sufficient evidence to assume that they are incapable to practice positive awareness and self-isolation. As a result, they should be placed under strict quarantine upon their arrival, to be on the safe side.

The TTPS displays inconsistent competency and they themselves cannot be trusted to babysit these 33 Trinis.

Currently yes, hospitals are under capacity and can comfortably handle 33 Trinis. A relaxed health system does not mean a free for all. Why only those 33 then? Why not bring in those stranded in Suriname and Margarita....and the thousands worldwide? Orr is it because of their situation? What about T&Ts situation? What is the limit that we can accept in our heath facilities and still safe guard for a major outbreak?

The point is DPD, we do not know at this time as we are unable to predict the future impact on society. Have you noticed the sudden spike Jamaica had in cases recently within a 24 hour period? Or is your brain stuck in North Korea?

Find solutions and stop avoiding problems? - One solution is to keep our borders close, thus avoiding the problem. They can enter when we are certain that we have things under control. Oh gosh bro, its 48 hours with no new cases, we’re doing really good so let’s hold it out a little longer even though it may seem “fair” to allow them in.

I mean i dont understand, the more we STAY HOME and STAY PUT the closer to victory. Lets not use sympathy, leniency, like, rather, want and prefer etc to risk it.

Keep well and be safe.

Dude victory is not possible without herd Immunity or a vaccine.

U can't contain this virus easily. The asymptotic spread is happening right now. For us to eliminate it entirely will take 2 more months of total lockdown (nobody leaving their house kinda thing). That is not possible and if we do it, it takes just one person entering the country with it to firetruck it up. Why aim for this impossible goal?

All we doing is delaying, I was calling it buying time but we not building hospitals or prepping quarentine facilities or anything. So we just wasting time.

We are not defeating this without a vaccine. The most we can do live with it while having strict mitigation factors.

We should be flattening the peak, not totally avoiding it (because economically that is suicide).

Watch and see the countries that come this the best are the ones that allowed it to peak. Italy will be a economic boom for many reasons after due to being one of the first who can re-open easily (herd immunity) less people on welfare (much less old age pensions to pay) and younger people gaining wealth through inheritance.

Countries that delay and try to fight the impossible will end up killing more people indirectly and ruin the economy of the country for at least a decade.

There is no easy decision, but what you want isn't possible.

I'm sure or hope the government knows this. When we reduce lockdowns and cases start showing up by the dozens daily. I hope you will realize that was always expected and we will inevitably have more lockdowns throughout 2020 and 2021.

[shake d livin wake d dead]

What yall thinking for after the 30th?

[rexsmith]

Good day,
Did anyone submit their forms for NIS and to Ministry of social development as yet.
I know they require payslip, letter from company, ID card. etc. but do they require birth paper?

[goalpost]

What yall thinking for after the 30th?

I feel ah 2 weeks again, tho I hope they bring back deliveries from restaurants at most.

[Dave]

Id card will suffice, if not then another id
And birth paper. Too much forms of id won't hurt.

Good day,
Did anyone submit their forms for NIS and to Ministry of social development as yet.
I know they require payslip, letter from company, ID card. etc. but do they require birth paper?

[Duane 3NE 2NR]

Johns Hopkins University
Trinidad & Tobago