The T&T Po­lice Ser­vice (TTPS) has giv­en the as­sur­ance that they will do their part with re­gard to en­force­ment in Safe Zones from to­day.

Speak­ing at a Min­istry of Health me­dia con­fer­ence on Sat­ur­day, Chief Med­ical Of­fi­cer Dr Roshan Paras­ram said he held a meet­ing on Fri­day with the TTPS as well as the pub­lic health in­spec­torate to dis­cuss en­force­ment as re­lat­ed to the Safe Zones.

"The TTPS as­sured us in terms of en­force­ment they would do their part,"|the CMO added.

When bars re­open to­day un­der the Safe Zone plan there are a num­ber of dos and dont’s when pur­chas­ing al­co­hol:

Sec­tion 3 (1) (k) un­der the Emer­gency Pow­ers Reg­u­la­tions, 2021 ex­press­ly pro­hibits the con­sump­tion of al­co­hol in pub­lic spaces.

Paras­ram, com­ment­ing on this, said, "My le­gal ad­vis­er ad­vised that the coun­try is in a State of Emer­gency (SOE) still which de­bars the con­sump­tion of al­co­hol in pub­lic spaces. Al­so, with­in these es­tab­lish­ments that are to be opened as Safe Zones, it is al­so en­trenched in the Pub­lic Health Reg­u­la­tions that al­co­hol is not to be con­sumed on the premis­es. The Of­fice of the At­tor­ney Gen­er­al would be able to shed fur­ther light on the in­tri­ca­cies of it."

Mem­bers of the pub­lic have al­ready been fined for con­sum­ing al­co­hol in pub­lic as in Sep­tem­ber an Ari­ma Mag­is­trate fined two men $2,000 each af­ter they plead­ed guilty to the charge of con­sum­ing al­co­hol in a pub­lic place dur­ing the SOE.