Trinidad and Tobago on track for July border reopening
Juanique Tennant / Our Today
After what has been an uphill battle for Trinidadians, whose borders have remained closed since March 2020, Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley has announced that plans to finally reopen the country’s borders in July remain on track.
Speaking at a weekly news conference on Saturday (June 19), Rowley told reporters, “we are still on track” for the mid-July border reopening, which will allow flights in and out of the Piarco International Airport which has been closed to scheduled traffic since March 2020.
He noted that the “CAL (Caribbean Airlines) and the ministries have worked out the arrangements and during the coming week the relevant authorities will tell you what the conditions are and we are preparing to have scheduled air services into Trinidad and Tobago and operate the managed border”.
In making the adjustments to the country’s COVID-19 restrictions, the prime minister stated, “we are going to be making these adjustments but they are all going to be governed by the level of infection rate”.
“We are taking more risks and therefore we expect more cooperation.”
Keith Rowley, Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago
Referencing the growing spread of the Delta COVID-19 variant, Rowley advised that the government would be keeping its eye out on the impact on various populations.
He stated: “I trust that you understand what is happening outside right now, even with very heavily vaccinated populations, we are not out of the woods yet. You would have heard about the Delta variant in the United Kingdom and the United States…so even as we are opening we have to keep our eyes on that.”
As the country seeks to reopen its borders Rowley emphasised that “the open border is not a free for all. It will be a border that will be opened for activities…(however) persons who are vaccinated as against those who are not vaccinated would be treated as groups of people with different conditions”.
In closing, the prime minister advised: “We are taking more risks and therefore we expect more cooperation.”
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