PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad (CMC) — The Trinidad and Tobago government Saturday announced a reopening of its borders on July 17, but warned that foreigners who are not vaccinated will not be allowed into the country as the government moves to deal with socio-economic impact of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley, speaking at the weekly news conference here, said that the re-opening of the Piarco International Airport to scheduled flights would take into consideration three categories of individuals.

“We expect to recognise three categories of people. Category One, is citizens of Trinidad and Tobago vaccinated. Category Two, citizens of Trinidad and Tobago unvaccinated and Category Three, other persons unvaccinated.

“The exact date in July, we expect to be Saturday July 17, that’s when we expect to go back to scheduled services, open our borders to those categories of people,” Rowley said.

He told reporters “non-nationals of Trinidad and Tobago, who are unvaccinated and let me repeat that, non-nationals of Trinidad and Tobago who are not vaccinated against COVID-19, will not at this time be allowed to enter Trinidad and Tobago.

“Nationals of Trinidad and Tobago, who are fully vaccinated, and a fully vaccinated person is defined as a person who have received the required number of doses of a WHO (World Health Organization) approved vaccine and have been two weeks since the final dose was applied, such a person who is a citizen or legal resident in Trinidad and Tobago would be allowed to enter, having shown proof of a negative PCR test, less than 72 hours or less, such a person will be allowed to travel into Trinidad and Tobago without a hindrance and will be allowed to go home.”

But he said those citizens or residents arriving here without being vaccinated “must go into state supervised quarantine for 14 days and you must in order to enter unvaccinated, you must be able to show proof of a PCR test not older than 72 hours”.

He said that the state-supervised quarantine facilities would be at venues such as certain approved hotels “and that would be at your own expense”.

He said children who are not vaccinated would be allowed to enter the country once accompanied by their vaccinated parents and allowed to go home from the airport.

But Rowley warned individuals who would seek to beat the system that measures are being put in place to ensure that “they feel the full brunt of the law”.

“The vaccination does not mean an end to the response to COVID,” he said, adding “and I spoke with the authorities about penalties for coming in unvaccinated and attempting to beat the system of not going into state supervised quarantine, I am going to talk with the attorney general to ensure that those penalties are in fact a deterrent and that the law enforcement will keep a close eye on you because we know that there are people who will want to come in having not complying with the  requirements…may believe that they are already in Trinidad and Tobago and also persons who may want to come out of the quarantine.

“One person caused Sydney (Australia) to shut down. So any person who comes into this country and decides to play fast and loose with our quarantine system and our entry requirements, will face the full brunt of the law.”

Rowley said there are also plans to follow other Caribbean Community (Caricom) countries and implement a digitalise system where individuals wishing to travel could provide their personal information as requested “with an app that will be available…as you book your flight with the airline that you are using”.

“This system is already in place at a couple of our Caribbean countries. We will be using the same system and therefore it should run relatively smoothly and is being put in place now to be able in two weeks’ time to operationalise,” Rowley added.

But even as the government announced the phased reopening of the borders that had been closed since March last year, it also indicated that plans to have the country’s economy “exhale” had to be put on hold further, even though the medical officials have reported a decline in the number of positive cases of the virus over the past few weeks.

“We take the decision now that it is good enough to exhale a bit. But if we do that the gamble is we could reverse, it is very reversible to have us go back to a situation where we would be forced to take harder action that we are taking now.”

Rowley said as a result, the government has taken a decision to delay the reopening of the construction sector in the private sector even though the vaccination programme has gone well for workers in that sector.

“Take comfort in the fact that we have a commitment that on the fifth of July, those of you who are working on government projects…they will be at work and most of you should be vaccinated and that the country should have in hand in a matter of days after that, enough vaccines to run that programme straight through the end of the month.

“The major disappointment will be with the private sector construction at this time,” Rowley said, indicating that he hopes that section of the construction sector would be opened soon.

The government also disclosed that it was satisfied with the ongoing national vaccination programme and urged people to accept the vaccines in order to allow for the further reopening of the country.

Trinidad and Tobago is expected to receive 4,000 doses of vaccines from St Vincent and the Grenadines in the next few days that Rowley said Kingstown had been unable to use because of the close expiry date.