Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh scotched any idea of cancelling Carnival 2020 because of the coronavirus.
Several commentators on social media have recently called for Carnival to be cancelled to prevent an influx of visitors and assembly of people, and so try to curb the import and spread of the virus from Wuhan, China. As of Sunday, 56 people had died in China where 2,000 more are infected. Three cases have been detected in the US, with cases also found in France, Australia, Japan, Hong Kong, Thailand, Vietnam, Singapore, Nepal, Macao, Malaysia, South Korea and Taiwan. Chinese scientists had said an infected person can transmit the virus before they even show any symptoms of being ill, so possibly evading thermal detection at entry points at airports.
Newsday asked if Carnival will be cancelled. “No sir, we won’t be doing that,” Deyalsingh replied.
Replies
Earl Richards: Ah doh want yuh going down to TRINIDAD FOR CARNIVAL and ending up with no kinda VIRUS, eh. Ah need you on THIS FORUM to support meh. Yuh eh see how merrytonestothebone and Mercer Ramdoo ganging up on meh. Ah need yuh to stay healthy to help meh deal with them fellahs.