NEWS

UWI head: TT not ready for coronavirus

TT is not ready for a coronavirus (covid19) outbreak. So said Prof Brian Copeland, UWI pro vice chancellor and campus principal, at the launch of a diploma in health visiting programme at the Hilton Trinidad on Friday. While commending the Ministry of Health and other government agencies on their efforts to keep the virus away from TT, Copeland said there were still gaps in the strategies Government is currently using to treat with the virus should there be an outbreak. “We have found that there are a number of gaps. There are a couple of instances, in San Fernando and in Tobago, which have highlighted that we are not yet prepared to tackle this problem. It was very glaring. A number of reports came to us and we are saying if these are suspected cases, then we need to revamp and rethink. Currently some of the systems need some work. The suspected cases cause mass havoc in the healthcare situation.” Copeland said. Read more here

Scammer passes off fake $100 on PoS vendor

When the pa­per-based $100 bill was de­mon­e­tised three months ago, Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Min­is­ter Stu­art Young claimed the fea­tures of the new poly­mer $100 bill that re­placed it would be much hard­er to coun­ter­feit. But a whole­sale ven­dor at the Cen­tral Mar­ket in Port-of-Spain is now warn­ing the pub­lic that scam­mers have pro­duced a close repli­ca to the bill af­ter he was paid with a coun­ter­feit $100 note on Sat­ur­day night. The man, who asked to re­main anony­mous for safe­ty rea­sons, said the coun­ter­feit bill is so close to the re­al poly­mer $100 bill that the av­er­age per­son would be scammed by its ap­pear­ance. In De­cem­ber last year, the Gov­ern­ment an­nounced that the pa­per-based $100 bill was be­ing tak­en out of cir­cu­la­tion as it was be­ing too eas­i­ly coun­ter­feit­ed and al­so used for mon­ey laun­der­ing. Read more here

POLITICS

Cuffie putting nominations in God’s hands

La Hor­quet­ta/Tal­paro Mem­ber of Par­lia­ment (MP) Max­ie Cuffie is among Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) in­cum­bents who are in­ter­est­ed in nom­i­na­tion to con­test elec­tions again, how­ev­er, Cuffie says he’s “putting mat­ters in God’s hands.” Cuffie was among some in­cum­bents com­ment­ing on their re­spec­tive po­si­tion re­gard­ing nom­i­na­tion. This fol­lows last Sat­ur­day’s an­nounce­ment by par­ty chair­man Colm Im­bert of the first batch of con­stituen­cies cho­sen to sub­mit Gen­er­al Elec­tion nom­i­nees. The batch com­pris­es 25 con­stituen­cies, 11 of which are Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC)-held ar­eas. Nom­i­na­tions must be sub­mit­ted by March 30. Nom­i­na­tions for the oth­er 16 seats will be sought af­ter that. When asked if any PNM in­cum­bents were will­ing to serve again, Im­bert ad­vised re­porters to ask in­cum­bents. MP Cuffie said ever since he suf­fered a stroke in 2017, he’s let God di­rect his plans and he con­tin­ues to do so. Read more here

Demerit points system on hold

Errant drivers have been given a one-month bligh by Works and Transport Minister Rohan Sinanan. The much anticipated Demerit Points System, which was supposed to go into effect on Monday, was put off and will now start on April 02. Sinanan said implementation of the system was postponed to give the public time to get accustomed to the system. Sinanan said the ministry decided not to start the demerit points system until April 2 and for the rest of this month, drivers will be given warning tickets. “We want to show the public if you do this, this is going to happen to you.” Sinanan was speaking at the handing over of new hand-held mobile traffic ticketing devices and carbon fixed penalty traffic books at the ministry’s office Richmond Street. Three hundred devices were distributed and the minister said this project cost $9 million. Read more here

BUSINESS

Prestige makes profit of $35.8M

Pres­tige Hold­ings Ltd has record­ed a prof­it of $35.5 mil­lion for the fi­nan­cial year of 2019. This is a 36% in­crease from $26.4 mil­lion in 2018. In a re­lease, Pres­tige Hold­ings Chair­man Chris­t­ian Mout­tet said: “Our im­proved prof­itabil­i­ty in 2019 was due to in­creased sales, pri­mar­i­ly from new restau­rants, and im­proved op­er­a­tions in most of our brands.” He con­tin­ued: “While all brands ex­pe­ri­enced im­proved sales, our Sub­way, Star­bucks and TGI Fri­day’s brands en­joyed the most sig­nif­i­cant im­prove­ment in prof­itabil­i­ty when com­pared to the pri­or year.” Dur­ing the year, Pres­tige not­ed that it com­plet­ed a new de­vel­op­ment—Trinci­ty Plaza in Trinci­ty. Mout­tet ac­knowl­edged that the per­for­mance of the com­pa­ny’s new restau­rants at this lo­ca­tion has ex­ceed­ed its ex­pec­ta­tions. Read more here

PAHO to meet T&T Chamber

The Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO) has reached out to and is due to meet with the Trinidad and Tobago Chamber of Commerce, as the local business community prepares for the “inevitable” arrival to this country of the deadly coronavirus (COVID-19). Read more here

REGIONAL

First set of results this midday

AS the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) work through last evening to tabulate the ballots from Monday’s regional and general elections, the declarations from the Returning Officers (RO) should be ready by midday today. This is according to Chief Elections Officer, Keith Lowenfield, who told reporters at GECOM’s media centre at High Street that the commission is working to have the results released as early as possible. Read more here

Cruise Clash-Late-Night Talks Appear To Falter As Carnival Threatens To Pull Vessels Over Coronavirus Protocols

Jamaica is at risk of losing at least three ship calls this week as a “stand-off” over protocols between the Ministry of Health and Wellness and Carnival Cruise Limited deepened last night, with the cruise line threatening to bypass the country if the Government failed to soften its stance on safeguards against the deadly novel coronavirus, or COVID-19. Up to last night, ministry officials were locked in discussions with senior executives of the cruise line who warned of their intention if local authorities did not relent on the stringency of protocol demands. Carnival’s hard-line position was triggered after one of its ships was initially denied landing privileges to Ocho Rios yesterday until further information was provided. Passengers from nations on Jamaica’s ban list were not allowed to disembark. Read more here

INTERNATIONAL

'How I recovered from coronavirus and isolation'

As the new coronavirus continues to spread around the world, some medical experts say it could become as widespread as the common flu. But as the number of casualties rise, thousands have also recovered. Read more here

Bernie Sanders faces pivotal clash as Democratic establishment joins forces against him

Bernie Sanders has spent his entire campaign saying this day would come. Now, it's here. After more than a year of angling and long periods of indecision, the leaders of the moderate wing of the Democratic Party are rapidly coming together to lift and fortify former Vice President Joe Biden ahead of Super Tuesday. The dramatic coalescing around Biden all came over two days that set the party's presidential race on a collision course between Sanders' political revolution and Biden's bid to revive former President Barack Obama's legacy. Read more here

3rd March 2020

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