News Briefs

Quarantine orders for Alorica employees remain in effect

The Ministry of Health & Wellness has said that the quarantine orders for all employees of the Alorica call centre remain in effect.

More than half of the island’s 364 COVID-19 cases have been linked to the call centre, which has operations in Portmore, St Catherine, and St Andrew.

The ministry said that all employees must remain at home until they are contacted by the St Catherine Health Department, even if the 14-day period of quarantine has expired.

They are also being advised to keep looking out for COVID-19 symptoms, limit contact with other persons and observe all other protocols to limit the spread of the virus.

T&T projects billions in losses from oil price collapse

PORT OF SPAIN (CMC):

The Trinidad and Tobago government yesterday said that it expects to lose revenue in excess of TT$9.2 billion (approximately J$200 billion) as a result of the dramatic decline in oil and gas prices on the global market.

“Accordingly, our fiscal deficit for fiscal [year] 2020, which was originally estimated at TT$5.3 billion, is now expected to expand to TT$15.5 billion – TT$10.2 billion higher than was envisaged in our financial year 2020 budget,” said Finance Minister Colm Imbert in a statement to Parliament as he pointed to increased spending to combat the coronavirus.

Imbert told legislators that there is no question that fiscal 2020 will be “exceptionally difficult even if the pandemic fades in the second half of the year thus allowing for a gradual lifting of the containment measures and a reopening of the economy”.

Haitian COVID-19 patients flee hospital

PORT-AU-PRINCE (CMC):

Haitian health authorities yesterday appealed to five people who tested positive for the novel coronavirus which causes COVID-19 to return to the hospital.

The departmental director of the Center Department of the Ministry of Public Health, Dr Denis Jean, confirmed that the five fled from the Sainte Thérèse de Hinche hospital, which was built in the 1930s by US Marines.

“If we do not quickly find these people, they risk infecting a lot of people,” he warned.

Last week, a Haitian national, who had been deported from the United States, and who tested positive for the virus that has killed more than 200,000 people worldwide, also fled from an isolation centre.

Haitian health officials have said that six people have died since the virus was first detected in the country on March 19.