In response to a consistent rise in Covid-19 cases, government has announced four new restrictions, which will come into effect at midnight.

The changes are as follows:

-There will be no public gatherings for entertainment and concerts

-The public service reverts to 50% capacity on a rotational basis.

-Places of worship must now congregate at  25%, from the initial 50%. Services still have a time cap of 90 minutes. Masks are to be worn during worship.

-Weddings and funerals limited to 10 people

As he rolled out the measures during Wednesday’s Covid-19 briefing, Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh said there was an intentional effort to strike a balance between limiting movement and supporting economic activity, in order to resolve what he referred to as “ugly” numbers coming up in the daily Covid-19 updates.

The measures come a day after T&T recorded 171 new cases of the virus and three new deaths, and will remain in effect until Sunday May 16th.

Minister Deyalsingh urged compliance from all citizens.

“If we adhere to these measures, we can see these figures lower, significantly, within three weeks to a month,” he said.

Referencing the global landscape, which sees several countries battling second, third and fourth waves of cases, Minister Deyalsingh said it was critical for T&T act now, to avoid ballooning out of control.

“We need to protect our healthcare system by not giving into pandemic fatigue,” he said, noting the realties in other parts of the world, “where ambulances are now lining up in rows of ten- we don’t have that here… our health system has proven to be resilient,” Deyalsingh said.

The large surge in Covid-19 cases currently being recorded appears to be the after-effects of large congregations which occurred around the Easter period.

This is according to Epidemiologist, Dr. Avery Hinds, who says contact tracing has also revealed barhopping, workplaces, and places of worship as sources of spread.

Presently T&T is nearing the 1,000 mark for active Covid cases with 982 on record. In the hospitals there are 86 patients, while another 718 remain in home isolation.