PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad (CMC)—  Trinidad & Tobago prime minister Dr Keith Rowley, who today announced the closure of all primary schools in the two-island republic as of tomorrow on account of exposure of some pupils to persons confirmed to have been infected with novel coronavirus, said there is “no raging virus” in the country.

The Ministry of Health reported today that three new cases had been reported over the past 24 hours, bringing the total to 197. There have been eight deaths since the first case was reported in March.

“There is no raging virus,” Rowley told reporters, noting that the emphasis is on the management of the risks involved in the spread of the virus.

“Basically what we are required to do after the first reaction is to live with the virus. Some people are living with it in an uncontrolled way. There are countries with far more resources that we have, who are not even attempting to do contact tracing….because the numbers are too large to attempt contact tracing….”

“In Trinidad & Tobago we have a structure and that is working well for us. You would have heard the Minister of Health saying a couple of days ago there is no raging virus in Trinidad & Tobago; the virus is not raging out of control. We are able to identify and pick up; we know that the virus is in the population [but] as it rears its head we are able to treat with it and so far, the majority of the cases and the numbers…are people where we have found the contacts”.