By Chantalé Fletcher
THERE’s no need for concern about new Covid-19 variants from persons entering the country during repatriation exercises.
This according to Principal Medical Officer of Institutions, Dr Maryam Abdool-Richards during the Ministry of Health’s presser on Monday.
Dr Abdool-Richard’s stated that there was a repatriation flight expected from Barbados on Tuesday, with students who were temporarily living on the island.
She also added that Barbados which is set to reopen its borders on July 12 had reported three variants of the coronavirus – Alpha, Gamma and Delta.
On Sunday, Barbados Chief Medical Officer Dr Kenneth George said 18 samples were tested; nine of those were the Alpha, three were the Delta and three were the Gamma.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), “Delta is the name given for the B.1.617.2. variant – a SARS-CoV-2 mutation that originally surfaced in India which was first identified in December 2020, becoming dominant.”
However, Dr Abdool-Richards stated that in regards to the Delta variant entering into the T&T, the current measures would still apply to mitigate the risk of contracting the disease.
These are some of the following measures:
- Ensuring that returning travellers have a negative PCR test, at most 72 hours, prior to embarking on the flight with sick persons restricted from boarding the airplane;
- Maintaining reduced occupancy in aeroplanes to ensure social distancing with mask-wearing mandatory on the flight; and
- Ensuring that the three W’s (washing your hands, wearing your mask, watching your distance) are practiced at the airport especially during the transfer of persons to the quarantine sites.
The PMO reassured the public that as now there were no confirmed cases of the Delta variant in T&T at this time.
