Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley today announced the resumption of in-house dining at restaurants and cinemas (within certain guidelines), lengthened church services to 90 minutes, and permitted a return to team sport for international outfits. Restaurants must not exceed 50 percent capacity with no more than 10 persons per group, …
Read More »NCRHA Psychiatric Unit supports staff and patients during pandemic; 24 new cases today
The Ministry of Health has reported 24 new positive Covid-19 cases. That brings the total reported infections to 5,798 since March. The death toll stands at 111 since yesterday’s reported fatality. Currently, there are 44 patients in hospital, with a further 28 in step-down facilities and 304 in state quarantine …
Read More »Noble: Is Peter George Jr ‘gaslighting’ us? Thank God T&T’s fate is not in his hands
Words matter. By choosing how we frame and talk about something, we induce others to think about an issue in a specific way. This framing can drastically change someone’s perspective about the issue. To present a public position the speaker carefully chooses the words and concepts to achieve the specific …
Read More »Dr Hinds: ‘Illegal immigrants bringing coronavirus the least of our worries’
Speaking at the Ministry of Health’s media conference today, epidemiologist Dr Avery Hinds said the country was still experiencing community spread, and managing our respiratory health and hygiene should be the focus of concern. Responding to a question about whether he was concerned that the virus could not be eradicated …
Read More »Is it me that has ‘faux concerns’? George Jr fires back, insists govt letting businesses down
“[…] We simply cannot continue like this without a massive fiscal intervention. My interviews last week were designed to get this message over to the policy makers and to the public. “Unfortunately the message seems to have been either misinterpreted or misunderstood as being hostile… And [Noble Philip] says it …
Read More »Covid counter: 31 dead in October; MOH awaits autopsy results of passenger on repatriation flight
The Ministry of Health is awaiting the results of an autopsy performed on a passenger who died on a repatriation flight to Trinidad on Saturday. The autopsy is expected to determine whether the passenger died due to Covid-19. The Caribbean Airlines flight, which was en route to Piarco International airport …
Read More »Noble: ‘Sheer arrogance wrapped up in faux concerns!’ The problem with selfish business rants
Planning for the unexpected and the unknown is a tough call. The Covid-19 disease has forced us to deal with a great deal of uncertainty. In many ways, the health issue, which has morphed into an economic one, represents an existential battle. The uncertainty and the weight of the expectations …
Read More »Dear editor: What causes layoffs, what happens after they occur and what the law says
“[…] The period of layoff as generally outlined by the industrial court is a maximum of three months. If there is no resumption of work, a worker is entitled to claim his severance pay… “[…]What we have witnessed since the pandemic, is that employers have been in breach of the …
Read More »Covid-19 claims its youngest victim: T&T’s 106th death was under 25
The country’s 106th Covid-19 death is also its youngest. Speaking at the Ministry of Health’s 28 October media conference, Principal Medical Officer Dr Maryam Richards said the patient was under 25 years old and had pre-existing medical conditions. Despite the special conditions, she warned that this case should remind the …
Read More »Virtual lessons in the time of Covid-19: Day in the life of a school teacher
“[…] Tutors face many challenges in this pandemic era that they possibly were not prepared for at teaching college. Most students are technologically savvy, and in the age of memes and TikTok, teachers are at risk of being ridiculed…” Today Wired868 features a secondary school visual arts teacher with more …
Read More »MOH braces for more Covid-19 cases from returning nationals and lifted restrictions
The number of nationals abroad who are allowed to re-enter the country will depend on the ability of the parallel healthcare system to receive them. This according to Principal Medical Officer Dr Maryam Abdool-Richardson, who spoke at the 26 October Ministry of Health media conference. While the principal medical officer …
Read More »Noble: A week of misinformation; how Chamber, UK MP and anonymous tweets added to ‘noise’
There appears to be broad agreement that the economic challenges, in the wake of Covid-19, are enormous. Facing a precipitous export earnings decline of 41% (roughly $10B in the last year), we should all be thinking about how to navigate the future: how to make the most of what we …
Read More »