PORT OF SPAIN – Trinidad and Tobago Thursday confirmed it had recorded its first “importer case” of the coronavirus (COVID-19) after a resident returned from Switzerland on Monday.
Minister of Health Terrence Deyalsingh told a hastily arranged news conference that the family of the 52-year-year-old individual who “resides in Trinidad and Tobago” had been placed in isolation since Wednesday”.
“It is a mild case, arrangements are being made to have him transported from his home to the Caura hospital.”
Deyalsingh said that the confirmation had come from the Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA) and Minister of National Security, Stuart Young told reporters that citizens should not panic and should follow the advice of the authorities.
“What we are asking people to do is to be self-cautious,” he said, advising them not to expose themselves to mass gatherings.
The health authorities here said that tracing is taking place with regard to contacts the unidentified individual would have made and reiterated that overseas travel should only be absolute necessity or an emergency.
Trinidad and Tobago, now joins Jamaica, St Vincent and the Grenadines and Guyana, as the only Caribbean Community (CARICOM) countries to have recorded positive cases of the virus which has killed more than 4 000 people in more than 110 countries since it was first detected in China in December last year.
(CMC)
