Over the course of the next two weeks, the Ministry of Health will make a final decision as to whether the newly opened Arima Hospital will be reserved as a facility to treat COVID-19 patients.

This, according to Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh, will depend on the chance that a large number of returning nationals test positive for COVID-19 during their quarantine.

His statement comes one day after 306 nationals returned from the Royal Caribbean’s Vision of Seas cruise ship vessel. The group has been swabbed and will complete their 14 day quarantine on board the vessel.

“We have to work on the assumption that  these 306 cruise ship people have the potential to be positive. We have to work on the assumption that the 200 students coming in from Jamaica and Barbados have the potential to be positive. If a significant portion happens to be positive then we’ll have to have facilities,” he said.

In addition, 29 T&T nationals returned from Venezuela on Friday night.

The Minister said the situation will be monitored closely.

“Initially, we were going to reserve Arima for COVID, we are reviewing that right now as we stand, because Couva now has not had a patient for over a month- since May 19th. Caura does not have a patient, so we are doing a wait and see,” he said.

The Arima Hospital was officially opened on Tuesday, at a cost to the state of $1.6 billion.