THE IMPACT ON TOURISM ACCORDING TO TRINIDADIAN LAW 351 3. PUBLIC HEALTH Although the Trinidad & Tobago Constitution allows for the Government of the day to declare a State of Emergency (SOE), which would allow the imposition of a curfew, the present Government has (so far) declined to do so. Instead, it has relied on the provisions in the Public Health Ordinance, Chapter 12 No. 4 of the Laws of Trinidad & Tobago and the Regulations which that legislation allows the Minister of Health to proclaim. As a result, the Government has effectively shut down the country by proclaiming, for instance, that all restaurants and fast food places must close, allowing only certain other businesses to be opened (the reader may be pleased to learn that amongst those businesses exempted from closing down are legal services). Moreover, while most people are staying at home, the truth is that many are not. Several questions have arisen, including the right of the police to enforce a quarantine – which they have tried to do –, but against which lawyers have pushed back, with no little success. Although T&T has been boasting that its infection rate is low, the truth is that there has been limited testing going on; although the reported number of deaths in the country is at eight persons, the testing is just a little over 1,100 persons, and the infection rate is allegedly just over 500. Again, these figures are unreliable. 4. GOING FORWARD It is clear that the virus has devastated the Caribbean Region. According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), global GDP growth, in 2019, was at +2.9%, but now, in 2020, it is projected to be at -3.0%. While most countries in the Region did well in 2019, the average drop in the Region for 2020, according to the IMF, will be around -9.0%. When one takes into account that the Region is heavily dependent on tourism (shopkeepers, taxi drivers, hotels, restaurants, beach workers), it does not take much to figure out that the economic damage is going to be huge. Besides, even though the Courts are effectively closed-down for now (only emergency cases such as domestic violence, habeas corpus, custody matters, etc.), the truth is that any contracts entered into before the effective shutting down of the country will be extended appropriately after the shut down is lifted.
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