With Christ­mas just five days away, the Sun­day Guardian asked some promi­nent peo­ple in T&T how they were go­ing to cel­e­brate Christ­mas amid the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic.

With the hol­i­day sea­son up­on us, can you say if it's busi­ness as usu­al in terms of your hol­i­day tra­di­tions? Are you break­ing any old cus­toms to keep with the new nor­mal?

Donna Cox, Minister of Social Development.

Ministry of Communications

Min­is­ter of So­cial De­vel­op­ment and Fam­i­ly Ser­vices Don­na Cox:

This year has been an un­usu­al and tough one for all of us. With re­gards to my usu­al hol­i­day tra­di­tions, it can­not be busi­ness as usu­al. I will be spend­ing a qui­et Christ­mas with my mom who is a high-risk case with re­gards to COVID-19. My move­ments will be lim­it­ed and al­so will be hav­ing no vis­i­tors this Christ­mas. Tra­di­tion­al­ly, I will hang out with friends and fam­i­ly but this year this will not be at the lev­el I am ac­cus­tomed to. I have been reach­ing out and as­sist­ing vul­ner­a­ble peo­ple who have been af­fect­ed by the pan­dem­ic. I in­tend to do so through­out the sea­son.

I don’t make res­o­lu­tions but I usu­al­ly thank God for His good­ness to­wards me and for bring­ing me thus far at the end of every year. My prayer is al­ways for His per­fect will to be ac­com­plished in my life in the com­ing year. So for 2021, I want to be in the per­fect will of the Lord. Tra­di­tion­al­ly I go to church on Old Year’s night, I in­tend to do so this year once I am able to.

Dr Karen Sohan-Seenath

For­mer med­ical chief of staff at the Mt Hope Women’s Hos­pi­tal Dr Karen So­han-Seenath:

It is the first time in 20 years that I will not be with my chil­dren for Christ­mas. The two old­er ones at­tend Uni­ver­si­ty in Flori­da and be­cause of the repa­tri­a­tion pol­i­cy, my hus­band and I have made the de­ci­sion that I will stay in Trinidad while they stay in Flori­da. Af­ter hav­ing to sue the Gov­ern­ment for an ex­emp­tion and then be­ing as­signed to a state quar­an­tine fa­cil­i­ty which vi­o­lat­ed pub­lic health guide­lines, I am un­able to go through this again.

I will con­tin­ue to fight for the rights of cit­i­zens strand­ed abroad. If COVID-19 pos­i­tive pa­tients who are asymp­to­matic or mild­ly symp­to­matic can quar­an­tine at home, re­turn­ing na­tion­als with a neg­a­tive PCR can cer­tain­ly be af­ford­ed the same.

Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Min­is­ter Stu­art Young:

My hol­i­day sea­son is not one that was busi­ness as usu­al. I have been cau­tious due to the pres­ence of COVID-19 and changed the way I would usu­al­ly op­er­ate this year. I have made quite a few changes and avoid­ed gath­er­ings. I have tried to play my part.