T&T yesterday joined some other Caricom states in implementing an immediate ban on visitors from African countries with the Ebola virus. Health Minister Dr Fuad Khan made the announcement during yesterday’s post-Cabinet news conference at the Office of the Prime Minister, St Clair. He said the Cabinet “had a long deliberation, and it came to the decision that with immediate effect, any person from Sierra Leone, Guinea, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Liberia and Nigeria will not be allowed entry into T&T. “Any person who has visited those countries within a six-week period will also be prohibited.”
Any citizen of T&T “who has visited those countries for the last six weeks will be subjected to an initial quarantine period of 21 days in the first instance,” he added. There would be no restrictions on US citizens visiting T&T, he added. Khan also said Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar had banned all ministers and government officials from travelling to Ebola-affected areas or travelling to those countries. Cabinet also agreed to establish the Ebola Prevention and Response Team, which will co-ordinate and manage all types of Ebola-related activities and develop a strategic plan, Khan said. Acting Chief of Defence Staff Brig Gen Anthony Phillips-Spencer will head that unit. He said that team would also discuss whether Carnival 2015 should be postponed or cancelled, and on the basis of its advice, the Cabinet will then decide.
A medical management team is to be set up if any case of Ebola is discovered in the country. Khan said there were no suspected or confirmed cases to date. He said President Anthony Carmona has to issue a proclamation deeming the Ebola virus a dangerous infectious disease to allow the Government to implement the required measures. The governments of St Vincent, St Kitts, St Lucia took similar action earlier this week. Grenada is contemplating similar action while Jamaica Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller has banned all travel by her officials to those countries.
Equipment, isolation unit to come
The minister also said the Government was spending millions to procure special personal protective equipment for use by medical professionals to treat citizens who may contract the virus.
The equipment includes head and face covers, goggles, face shields, trunk and abdomen aprons, rubber boots and shoe covers. He said most of that equipment was available at Nipdec and had been delivered to health centres and county medical officers of health offices across the country.
Khan said hazardous material suits, which offer more protection, were to be acquired. The Government was also setting up an Ebola isolation unit at Caura Hospital, he added. “It is specific for the isolation of Ebola and removal of hazardous waste and treatment of Ebola patients,“ Khan added. He said the unit would cost $3 million (US$500,000) and the suits $20,00 each. Khan dismissed a demand by Public Services Association (PSA) president Watson Duke that workers who might be required to treat Ebola victims should be given $10 million insurance. He said that demand was unfair. “That is bordering on ridiculous,” he added. He said the Government was committed to do all it could to ensure that Ebola did not kill anybody in this country.