Latest update November 13th, 2024 1:00 AM
Feb 06, 2020 News
Health authorities in Guyana are not aware that Trinidad and Tobago has sent back a female passenger.
According to the Trinidad Guardian, a fe¬male pas¬sen¬ger who ar¬rived at Pi¬ar¬co In¬ter¬na¬tion¬al Air¬port from Guyana on Mon¬day night on a jour¬ney that orig¬i¬nat¬ed in Hong Kong was sent back to the port of em¬barka¬tion.
This was con¬firmed by Chief Med¬ical Of¬fi¬cer Dr. Roshan Paras¬ram who said the woman “did not have any symp¬toms or any¬thing that was sus¬pi¬cious but she was re¬turned be¬cause of the trav¬el re¬stric¬tions from Chi¬na.”
He told Guardian Me¬dia: “I be¬lieve she would have gone through oth¬er ter¬ri¬to¬ries, in¬clud¬ing Hong Kong, New York and Guyana and then to Trinidad. Based on our trav¬el re¬stric¬tions for per¬sons leav¬ing Chi¬na with¬in 14 days of de¬par¬ture, she was re¬turned to the last port of call based on the Cab¬i¬net note and the im¬mi¬gra¬tion laws.
“I don’t know what flight she came in from but I on¬ly know of that woman who came in from Guyana and she would have spent some time at our air¬port wait¬ing on de¬par¬ture back to the port of call.”
However, a number of officials, including from the Ministry of Health, said that they could find no records of the woman arriving here.
Com¬ment¬ing on the in¬ci¬dent dur¬ing an in¬ter¬view of CNC3’s The Morn¬ing Brew, Trinidad’s Chief Im¬mi-gra¬tion Of¬fi¬cer Char¬maine Gand¬hi-An¬drews said of¬fi¬cials at this coun¬try’s ports of en¬try are alert¬ed right away—via ad¬vance pas¬sen¬ger in¬for¬ma¬tion from air¬lines—when pas¬sen¬gers orig¬i¬nate from Chi¬na.
How¬ev¬er, some per¬sons have more com¬pli¬cat¬ed trav¬el itin¬er¬aries and im¬mi¬gra¬tion of¬fi¬cials are on¬ly able to de¬duce their ori¬gin dur¬ing the in¬ter¬view and by look¬ing at all their trav¬el doc¬u¬ments and pass¬ports. “We had one such case yes¬ter¬day and that pas¬sen¬ger was re¬turned to their port of en¬try,” she said.
“They were screened by port health; there was no is¬sue. How¬ev¬er, be¬cause of the trav¬el ban, that per-son was re¬turned to their port of em¬barka¬tion.”
Ghan¬di-An¬drews said cit¬i¬zens and per¬ma¬nent res¬i¬dents of this coun¬try can¬not be re¬fused en¬try. How¬ev-er, they will be screened and pos¬si¬bly even quar¬an¬tined if they have re¬turned from a coun¬try of in¬ter¬est for the virus, and pose a po¬ten¬tial in¬fec¬tion risk.
The in¬ci¬dent caused some con¬cern among air¬port work¬ers, in¬clud¬ing Im¬mi¬gra¬tion and cus¬toms of¬fi¬cers, who are call¬ing for more strin¬gent screen¬ing process¬es, in¬clud¬ing full-body sani¬ti¬sa¬tion spray¬ing for all ar¬riv¬ing pas¬sen¬gers as they dis¬em¬bark from the re¬spec¬tive air¬craft.
One air¬port work¬er, speak¬ing on con¬di¬tion of anonymi¬ty, said: “We think that there should be more pre¬cau¬tion¬ary mea¬sures at the air¬port… maybe have a sys¬tem where all pas¬sen¬gers are screened and sani¬tised by full-body spray¬ing be¬fore they en¬ter the ter¬mi¬nal. The avail¬abil¬i¬ty of more gloves, face masks and hand sani¬tis¬ers too.”
Ghan¬di-An¬drews said 1,000 masks were or¬dered last week and it is be¬com¬ing “more im¬per¬a¬tive that all of¬fi¬cers utilise it.”
With re¬gards to the screen¬ing process, she said an as¬sis¬tant chief and two Grade IV of¬fi¬cers have been as¬signed to the air¬port to over¬see the coro¬n¬avirus screen¬ing process. Dr. Vish¬wanath Par¬taps¬ingh, Prin-ci¬pal Med¬ical Of¬fi¬cer at the Health Min¬istry, said risk of the nov¬el coro¬n¬avirus nCoV-2019 spread¬ing to T&T is rel¬a¬tive¬ly low, com¬pared with oth¬er places.
How¬ev¬er, while there is no need to pan¬ic, the coun¬try can¬not af¬ford to be com¬pla¬cent.
Dr. Par¬taps¬ingh says the screen¬ing sys¬tems are ex¬treme¬ly de¬tailed to de¬ter¬mine trav¬ellers’ pos¬si¬ble ex-po¬sure to nCov-2019, once they are com¬ing from coun¬tries of in¬ter¬est.
“When you look at the ex¬it screen¬ing of those com¬ing out of these ports, it is quite in¬tense. There is a tem¬per¬a¬ture scan¬ning. There is al¬so the ex¬po¬sure his¬to¬ry as¬cer¬tained: ‘Did you trav¬el or go to a mar¬ket with live an¬i¬mals? Did you have any live an¬i¬mals? Did you come in¬to con¬tact with any¬one who dis¬played any of the symp¬toms?’ That is the base of the screen¬ing,” he said.
“When you look at the cas¬es in the oth¬er coun¬tries out¬side of main¬land Chi¬na, the cas¬es all had a di¬rect ex¬po¬sure his¬to¬ry—ei¬ther trav¬el to or had a di¬rect, close con¬tact with some¬one who was con¬firmed with a case.”
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