Perenco employees who tested negative for COVID-19 check into the Tradewinds Hotel in San Fernando on Monday night. Over 50 of their co-workers who tested positive for the virus are now in quarantine at the University of the West Indies’ Debe campus. Photo: Trinidad Guardian TRINIDAD GUARDIAN
PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad - Perenco Trinidad and Tobago Limited yesterday shut down COVID-hit offshore platforms in its Teak, Samaan and Poui fields and transported all workers to either state facilities or other locations for quarantine pending testing.
This after Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh reportedly intervened in the matter following continuing complaints from workers.
Perenco employees who tested negative for COVID-19 check into the Tradewinds Hotel in San Fernando on Monday night. Over 50 of their co-workers who tested positive for the virus are now in quarantine at the University of the West Indies’ Debe campus.
Perenco Trinidad and Tobago Limited yesterday shut down COVID-hit offshore platforms in its Teak, Samaan and Poui fields and transported all workers to either state facilities or other locations for quarantine pending testing.
This after Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh reportedly intervened in the matter following continuing complaints from workers.
Yesterday evening, 16 more workers who tested positive, along with a French national, were transported to the University of the West Indies’ Debe campus for state quarantine. The French national, however, was taken by ambulance to an undisclosed location.
Parenco Trinidad and Tobago workers arrive at the Tradewinds Hotel in St Joseph Villag, San Fernando on Monday night.
Perenco Trinidad and Tobago Limited offshore workers are pleading with the relevant authorities for help, as they fear a mass COVID-19 contamination on the two major platforms they work on and within their families. This is because some of them claim positive and negative workers are still intermingling on the platform, while some of them were allowed to return to their homes before getting tests to confirm whether they had the virus or not.
The appeal came even as the company moved a batch of 18 workers from one of the rigs to the Tradewinds Hotel in San Fernando last night. Those workers, who have not so far tested positive for the virus, were taken to the Galeota Port then shuttled to San Fernando around 7.51 pm. On Sunday, some 35 workers were evacuated from the Teak Alpha platform and taken into state quarantine at the University of the West Indies’ Debe camp
Rhondor Dowlat-Rostant Over 35 offshore workers employed with the Perenco Trinidad and Tobago oil and gas company were transported to the Ministry of Health’s quarantine facility at the University of the West Indies’ Debe campus last evening, after they tested positive for COVID-19 while on duty on the Teak Alpha platform last week. The workers were transported to the facility just around 6.25 pm yesterday and were processed before going into quarantine.
Earlier, at around 10 am, they had been taken to Point Galeota by shuttle boat but there were no health officials to receive them. As such, they had to wait until health officials arrived, along with the maxi taxis which were to transport them to Debe. Guardian Media understands the workers stayed on shuttle boat for close to seven hours before a team of Ministry of Health officials went to process them at Point Galeota. However, the workers were forced to stay on the deck of the shuttle boat because the captain did not wan