00:00The Ministry of Health is advising the public of fake memorandums bearing the Ministry's logo,
00:06one of which claims that all schools across the country are to be closed for a period of two weeks,
00:12effective today due to a recent detection of hand-to-virus cases across several communities.
00:19Minister of Health Lacrambodo is urging members of the public not to share or disseminate the inaccurate information.
00:27I want to condemn, in the strongest possible way, an earlier purported release from the Ministry of Health, which is
00:37entirely fake.
00:39And as we speak, I'm seeing another release purportedly from the Ministry of Health, which is also fake.
00:45One speaks to the closure of schools for two weeks. That is certainly not so.
00:50And the other speaks, it's just come to my attention, about the national shutdown, airport closure, and whatnot, and so
00:59on.
00:59I just want to say that this is absolutely not the case.
01:04There being no confirmed or suspected cases of antivirus in Trinidad and Tobago.
01:08And again, I'd want to condemn in the strongest possible way the circulation of these two purported memorandums from the
01:19Ministry of Health
01:19and to say that they're entirely fake news.
01:22There have been seven confirmed cases and three deaths from the virus following an outbreak on a cruise ship in
01:30the Atlantic.
01:30Countries have been evacuating their citizens, with the two latest confirmed cases being a French national and an American citizen.
01:40The French national has at least 22 possible contacts, which are now being traced,
01:46and a total of 18 U.S. residents are now isolated at special facilities.
01:52Here at home, the health minister says the ministry is not considering any travel restrictions.
01:57There's really no need for any additional measures at this point in time.
02:02There are always screening mechanisms at all ports of entry, and those measures remain in place.
02:08The WHO would have indicated, of course, that there's a cluster of antivirus cases associated with a cruise ship,
02:17which is en route to the Canary Islands.
02:20So whilst, you know, our experience previously would be to be cautious,
02:26there is no need for any sort of panic at this time in general in Diego.
02:31The false news has spread far and wide, with media from another Caribbean country getting wind of the disinformation,
02:39prompting the Caribbean Public Health Agency to respond.
02:42So this question comes from Carlos Atwell from The Nation in Barbados.
02:48He's asking, he is hearing that Hunter has been discovered in TNT.
02:53I'm guessing that's short for Trinidad and Tobago.
02:55Is there any truth to this?
02:57As far as we are aware, we have not heard when there's no evidence that we are aware of to
03:03confirm something like this.
03:04I just saw someone literally just send this one.
03:08I was laughing because someone sent it, indicating that it has been discovered.
03:14But we are working with our ministries.
03:17The likelihood of this is very unlikely, based on all that we would have said.
03:24We will, of course, make sure and investigate.
03:28But I want the media to know that there have been information, a lot of misinformation that has been going
03:36out.
03:37The likelihood that this may be misinformation.
03:42We will work with Ministry of Health on this information that just came to us.
03:51Last week, an international news agency reported that a Sint Kitts and Nevis Citizen had been exposed to the virus
04:00on the ship.
04:01So based on this report, there is no suspected or confirmed cases in the Federation of Sint Kitts.
04:09So I'm asking the media to understand that as we go along.
04:17Meantime, COPPA maintains that antivirus risk in the region remains low.
04:23So they are typically born, rodent-born, and transmitted through contact with infected rodents or their excreter.
04:32However, the current antivirus outbreak, linked to the MV Honduras cruise ship, is caused by the Andy strain, which is
04:42the only known strain capable of limited human-to-human transmission.
04:49It is found primarily in parts of South America, including Argentina.
04:54Based on the evidence available, the rodent species that maintains this virus in India is not present in the Caribbean,
05:05and therefore there is no documented, established local route of transmission in our region.
05:12This rare human-to-human transmission usually requires intimate or prolonged exposure.
05:22Renessa Cutting, TB6 News.
Comments