Two hun­dred of the coun­try's 726 mu­nic­i­pal po­lice of­fi­cers are in quar­an­tine while 38 have test­ed pos­i­tive for COVID-19.

This was dis­closed on Sat­ur­day by T&T Mu­nic­i­pal Po­lice Ser­vice Snr Supt Cur­tis Belford as the vac­ci­na­tion roll­out for mu­nic­i­pal po­lice of­fi­cers and work­ers of the 14 re­gion­al cor­po­ra­tions kicked off at the San Fer­nan­do Acad­e­my of Per­form­ing Arts (SAPA). Over two days, vac­ci­na­tion will be ad­min­is­tered to em­ploy­ees and mu­nic­i­pal of­fi­cers em­ployed at the sev­en re­gion­al cor­po­ra­tions with­in the south­ern re­gion. This will take place at Man­dela Park on Mon­day and Tues­day.

Local Government Minister Kazim Hosein.

Rur­al De­vel­op­ment and Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment Min­is­ter Kaz­im Ho­sein who was ac­com­pa­nied by San Fer­nan­do May­or Ju­nia Re­grel­lo, en­cour­aged em­ploy­ees to take the jab. While they are hop­ing to ad­min­is­ter about 350 vac­cines, he said the num­ber could be more as “no one will be turned away.” Not­ing that may­ors, chair­men, coun­cil­lors and al­der­men were giv­en a pre­vi­ous vac­ci­na­tion ap­point­ment date, he said some of them were hes­i­tant. But he said they were now com­ing for­ward to take the jab.

“And I want to en­cour­age them es­pe­cial­ly this morn­ing, do not take any chances. They will in­fect their fam­i­ly, their friends and their loved ones so come out like all these mu­nic­i­pal po­lice of­fi­cers and the cor­po­ra­tions work­ers are com­ing here this morn­ing and take the vac­cine."

Say­ing that he was wear­ing two face masks, Ho­sein stressed the im­por­tance of be­ing in­oc­u­lat­ed and ad­her­ing to the COVID-19 pro­to­cols. “As you see here, I have on two masks. I am not mak­ing joke with it at all. I al­ways walk with my hand sani­tis­ers in my pock­et, in my car and I en­cour­age every­body to do the same, prop­er so­cial dis­tanc­ing…”

Asked about com­plaints by the Trans­port Di­vi­sion work­ers at the Ma­yaro-Rio Claro Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tion that they were not put on ro­ta­tion, he said the cor­po­ra­tions got in­struc­tions from the Per­ma­nent Sec­re­tary as di­rect­ed by the Min­istry for work­ers to be put on ro­ta­tion. “That is hap­pen­ing through­out the cor­po­ra­tions. If you say­ing it did not hap­pen be­fore it is hap­pen­ing now.”

Asked if they were look­ing in­to the sit­u­a­tion at the Ma­yaro-Rio Claro cor­po­ra­tion where work­ers have test­ed pos­i­tive, he said, “Yes, yes. We are very proac­tive when com­ing to this vac­cine and this COVID-19.”

Told that dur­ing a bur­ial at the Roodal Cemetary on Sat­ur­day there were more than ten peo­ple in at­ten­dance which was in breach of the pub­lic health re­stric­tions, Re­grel­lo said he will pass on the in­for­ma­tion to the mu­nic­i­pal po­lice to be dealt with.