No Carnival for Unvaccinated…

 

By Sue-Ann Wayow

CARNIVAL 2022 will take place but without the usual pomp, ceremony and two-day street parades.

This was announced by Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley on Thursday during his address to the nation.

He said after much deliberation, it was advised that the “greatest show on earth” should still take place but with a twist.

This year, Carnival 2021 did not take place due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Dr Rowley said, “We have received good advice, after extensive consultation, about Carnival. Carnival 2022 will not see street parades, unvaccinated gatherings and wild public partying but there is room for safe zone venue specific events where some elements of the festival can be sampled as a Carnival microcosmic mosaic with a difference.”

Beaches May Open for Christmas

He is also attempting to keep his promise to have beaches re-opened by Christmas.

Dr Rowley assured, “I did say earlier that I am hoping that we could open beaches for Christmas. I’m still on that. I will give the numbers a couple of weeks to see where they are taking us and if there is no further significant deterioration, we could start with early morning beach openings from say 5 am to 12 noon. We should be able to have therapeutic dips at dawn without the parties at afternoon and sunset.”

And he is maintaining that any further lockdown of the economy will be used “only as a last resort when all steps become impotent.”

With the Christmas season looming, Dr Rowley encouraged family members to encourage each other to get vaccinated and to create “safe zones”.

He said, “Try and avoid a funeral for Christmas. Act now! Get vaccinated and get them vaccinated, now.”

If persons qualify for a third shot of a two dose regime vaccine or a second shot of a one-dose regime, Dr Rowley is advising that those persons have that shot as soon as possible.

The Prime Minister is advising citizens to stay as safe as possible during the hectic season.

“Very soon the Christmas season and its festivities will be upon us. We will want to have a good Christmas but we must be particularly careful to not let that Christmas be the event that pushed us over the edge,” he said.

He said, “Fellow citizens, this is 2021, the second year of a pandemic. We have come a long way together. Let’s finish the journey by being realistic and responsible. Let’s not try and make it alone. Christmas is a season of hope and new life. Let’s do all that we can do to be there when we beat this virus sometime in the New Year.”

Dr Rowley said the Government has been doing everything that it could to manage the virus, its spread and effects by keeping the current healthcare system afloat and the continued robust testing of the population.

To date, the country has since received a total of 1,947,190 vaccines of which, 1,284,884 have been administered as of November 22  and  59.5% of people aged 12 to 18 have been vaccinated.

Bleak outlook 

However, he did paint a bleak picture of what the near future could be like, pleading with the population to get vaccinated against the Covid-19 virus and to continue to strictly adhere to all health protocols.

“If current trends continue, the parallel healthcare system will be overwhelmed in a matter of days.  As such, this will manifest in our inability to provide care, not only to our Covid-19 patients, but to our other patients accessing general medical care and emergency care,” Dr Rowley said.

And if increasing trends continue, only then will Government have to implement measures that have previously been avoided such as further lockdown measures and mandatory vaccination for public service employees, he said.

In his address, the Prime Minister gave a detailed chronological history of the Covid-19 virus since its first reported case in China in December 2019 and how it has been handled by Trinidad and Tobago since then with more than $500 million being spent in Covid-19 response.

Trinidad and Tobago recorded its first case of the virus on March 12, 2020 one day after the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the Covid-19 pandemic. On March 25, 2020 Trinidad and Tobago recorded the first Covid-19 related death, the patient a seventy-year-old male with pre-existing conditions.

Currently, the country faces a critical juncture with its third wave, over 2,000 deaths, almost 700 new cases being reported daily, more than 500 patients in the parallel healthcare system and over 200 Delta variant cases.

He did commend citizens and healthcare workers on their fight against the virus and further urged them not to give up the fight.

“Painful and distressing as this situation is, now is not the time to concede defeat in any way. Now is not the time to get tired, careless or carefree. Hope is good and luck is welcome but they are no substitute for being sensible or reasonable. Now more than ever we must not lower our guard but instead commit to fight this scourge with everything at our disposal, not the least of which are the vaccines we have and the personal responsibility we must adopt,” Dr Rowley said.

He said even while preparing his presentation the night before he received the depressing news that a new variant has appeared in Botswana which some scientists are already saying “could be worse than nearly anything else about” and it “may even become vaccine resistant.”

He said as of November 22, Caribbean Public Health Agency  (CARPHA) has indicated that the Caribbean region has reported over 2.1 million confirmed cases and over 27,000 deaths.

“For us, this is the scale and scope of the pandemic,” Dr Rowley said.

He said, “The current seven-day rolling average of positive cases, as of November 22, 2021, is 518 cases per day. The seven-day rolling average has continued to demonstrate an increase from the beginning of October, to the current date. This represents the longest consistent period of increasing rolling average manifested since the plateau of cases began in July.”

He added, “The seven-day rolling average of deaths (November 16 to 22) stands at 15, with a minimum of six and a maximum of 28 deaths, during that seven-day period. This trend is indicative of an established upsurge in the transmission of Covid-19, in the population, with seven consecutive weeks of upward-trending totals.”

The Prime Minister ended his address with hope that  the population will get through the pandemic by getting vaccinated adherence to the protocols as much uncertainty still lies ahead.