As T&T record­ed 520 COVID-19 in­fec­tions and 11 more deaths on Sat­ur­day, peo­ple across south Trinidad wel­comed the Gov­ern­ment's im­po­si­tion of a State of Emer­gency.

Gregory Gordon

IVAN TOOLSIE

Speak­ing af­ter the Prime Min­is­ter's an­nounce­ment, Gre­go­ry Gor­don of San Fer­nan­do said, "The SOE was com­ing be­fore, but it was held back. It came be­cause of the dis­obe­di­ence of peo­ple. It is need­ed at this time to bring some con­trol over this sit­u­a­tion."

Stephen Mur­ray said while the SOE was need­ed, it will neg­a­tive­ly im­pact peo­ple's liveli­hoods.

"I agree I do think this is need­ed at this point, but it will ad­verse­ly af­fect many peo­ple," Mur­ray said.

Franklin from Gas­par­il­lo said he trust­ed the Gov­ern­ment's de­ci­sion.

Businessman Fawaz Hosein

IVAN TOOLSIE

"What­ev­er they think will work I will sup­port it be­cause they know bet­ter. I don't have the in­for­ma­tion, they do, but I will say yes to the SOE be­cause some peo­ple are just too hard­en," Franklin said.

Kurleen Fran­cis from Gas­par­il­lo said that the SOE was late in com­ing.

Busi­ness­man Fawwaz Ho­sein said the SOE should have been im­ple­ment­ed two weeks be­fore. 

Members of the public were seen liming on Mucurapo Street, San Fernando, yesterday evening.

Rishi Ragoonath

"I think it should have been from 6 am to 6 pm. The time they put it from 9 pm to 5 am, most peo­ple are in­side al­ready," he added.

Maya Lochan al­so said an SOE was need­ed.

"Af­ter so many COVID deaths, hos­pi­tals full and morgues full, of course, it is need­ed. It came late," Lochan said.

Mon­i­ca Ja­cob al­so said that an SOE was def­i­nite­ly need­ed to flat­ten the curve at this time.