By Prior Beharry
CARONI East MP Dr Rishad Seecharan is calling for Covid-19 rapid testing kits to be made available to principals so that students who are sitting the Secondary Entrance Assessment (SEA) examinations next Thursday could be tested if they are displaying flu-like symptoms.
He made the comment while piloting a non-confidence motion against Minister of Health Terrence Deyalsingh in the Lower House on Friday.
“Should a child present for their SEA examination and they have some sort of sniffles or some sort of symptoms you an simply test this child.
“And in 15 to 20 minutes you can have an idea if this child is Covid-19 positive or negative and allow them to write the examination.”
He said last year after SEA, there was a great surge of Covid-19 in the population because it spread quickly among children who were less careful and took less precaution than adults.
Dr Seecharan said living is this country have become so unbearable so much so that Venezuelans who sought refuge in Trinidad and Tobago were now returning to their homeland.
He said, “The boats that brought thousands to our shores are now finding new business in transporting Venezuelans back to Venezuela.”
Dr Seecharan said 8,000 of the more than 16,500 Venezuelans who have registered to work in T&T now want to return home.
He called for the removal of Deyalsingh as Minister of Health.
Dr Seecharan said more than 10,000 Covid-19 cases were recorded in May 2021 with over 250 deaths due to the coronavirus.
He said, “I hold the Minister of Health solely responsible for this surge. The deaths of citizens of T&T could have been avoided.
“The last two-and-a-half months was a self-inflicted wound by the Ministry of Health resulting in death and destruction in T&T.”
He said before the Easter weekend Tobago had only about two to three deaths due to Covid-19.
Dr Seecharan said this Covid-19 death rate in Tobago was now more than 20.
