Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago, Dr Keith Rowley, said that the country’s lockdown measures, which were due to expire on Sunday (May 23) had been extended to July 4.

Rowley made the announcement while speaking at a press conference over the weekend, where he further shared that his administration wanted to extend the State of Emergency (SoE) for another three months.

According to Rowely, while he plans to extend the SoE for a three-month period, he explained that the measure would not necessarily be implemented for the entire period.

Police Commissioner Gary Griffith said that since the implementation of the SoE, more persons have been observed outside during daytime (non-curfew) hours.

Griffith encouraged persons to stay home noting that coming out in the daytime without reason was the type of behaviour that the SoE was meant to prevent.

“That is totally going to defeat the value and the purpose of the State of Emergency, because having a virtual ghost town during the night and then persons are then coming out en masse during the day, it means that the same concerns that we have about the virus spreading will just be intensified during the day period,” Griffith said.

“We continue to ask persons, you should only be out if it is you are providing an essential service as an employee or you are going out to acquire the products from an essential service. The police will be intensifying our patrols, our visibility, through possible roadblocks and other things,” he added.