Ministry Of Health Virtual Media Conference - Wednesday June 10th 2020

Key Points From The Ministry Of Health’s Virtual Media Conference on COVID-19 – Wednesday June 10th 2020: - Education Minister Anthony Garcia announced that the S.E.A. Exam will be held on Thursday August 20th 2020. Results should be issued somewhere around October 8th and if all goes well by that date, students should enter Form 1 by October 19th 2020. - SEA (Standard 5) students will return to school on Monday July 20th 2020 ahead of their exam. Teachers will be offered a stipend as the resumption starts during the July/August school vacation. Normal school hours are 8:30am to 3pm. All schools will be sanitised ahead of the resumption of classes and pupils will have to wear masks ahead of entering the classroom. - Students will be provided with psychological and emotional support ahead of the resumption of school. School Supervisors/Curriculum Officers to visit schools regularly to ensure the curriculum is being followed. - Forty three Returning Nationals are quarantined at various facilities in T&T. The following is the breakdown: CASCADIA: 2 quarantined. HOME OF Football: 3 quarantined. TACARIGUA RACQUET CENTRE: 29 quarantined. UWI Debe Campus: 9 quarantined. - National Security Minister Stuart Young assured that all TT Nationals who wish to return home will be allowed to do so, but the process is being managed as there is limited space at the State Quarantine Facilities and the mixing of Returning Nationals from different jurisdictions is not recommended. - Three additional sets of TT cruise ship workers are expected to return home in the next few days: ▪️326 to 360 from the Royal Caribbean cruise ship (Friday June 12th 2020). Government has negotiated for a special vessel to be used to quarantine these cruise ship workers who will be monitored on a daily basis. ▪️ 20 from the Norwegian cruise ship (19 workers + 1 Permanent Resident (Monday June 15th 2020). ▪️ 7 from the Disney cruise ship (Tuesday June 16th 2020). - Flights are being arranged to repatriate 167 TT students at UWI Mona and 85 TT students at UWI Cave Hill. - As much as 850 Returning Nationals are expected back home in the next few weeks. Among those returning home are: ▪️ 29 TT Nationals from Venezuela this Friday. ▪️ 49 TT workers based in Mexico (employer to pay for their State-supervised quarantine at a specific hotel). ▪️ 5 TT workers based in St. Kitts (employer to pay for their State-supervised quarantine at a specific hotel). ▪️ 26 deportees from the United States. - TT Nationals who wish to travel to Canada to work on farms are being warned that there are COVID-19 cases there. National Security Minister Stuart Young said they will be allowed to go but must sign an indemnity form ahead of their travel to acknowledge that they are putting themselves at risk and doing so at their own volition. If they wish to return home and T&T’s borders are closed, they must apply for an exemption and pay for their State quarantine.