PM Holness will Restrict Travel from Trinidad and Tobago due to COVID-19 P1 variant

Trinidad and Tobago’s Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley reported that Jamaica will restrict travel from his country, because of the presence of the COVID-19 P1 variant, which is also called the Brazilian variant in the population there.

He spoke recently at the Ministry of Health conference on COVID-19, the PM said he was recently informed by Jamaica’s Prime Minister Andrew Holness of this new development. 

Yesterday the Jamaican Prime Minister gave him the courtesy of informing him that it is possible that, sometime today, Jamaica will put Trinidad and Tobago on a list of restricted countries from which persons cannot travel to Jamaica, because they acknowledged that they had the P1 variant there.

The virus is raging in Brazil, and Trinidad and Tobago is in a peculiar geographical location. Brazil is part of CARICOM and has a border with Guyana. People are travelling from Guyana because of CARICOM arrangements to Trinidad and Tobago.

They cannot take a lot of comfort in the fact that if they focus in that way on migrants that they’ll be given a pass for the rest of their population. This virus is raging all over the world, among populations.

Trinidad and Tobago’s borders are currently closed but travel exemptions can be granted for emergency purposes. 

On May 1 the Ministry of Health in Trinidad and Tobago confirmed that there were six more cases of the P1 variant found within the population.