Yesterday the Public Services Association (PSA) reported a positive Covid-19 Case in the Ministry of Agriculture Land and Fisheries Head Office in Chaguanas, which caused its office to shut down. However, between last evening and this morning, it has been confirmed that four additional employees tested positive for the virus. This takes the number of persons who tested positive for Covid-19 at the Ministry to 12.PSA’s Industrial Relations Officer (IRO), Aaron Singh, indicated that employees were understandably scared at this time and were not comfortable returning to the office unless there are assurances of proper sanitization and that all primary and secondary contacts were quarantined. IRO Singh stated that this is exactly what he initially implored Heads of Ministries/Departments to prevent, when he pleaded with Permanent Secretaries and their Divisional Managers to roster only the essential of essential workers. He said that the world was in a pandemic and our country was no exception. He said that in battling this deadly virus, no employee should be unnecessarily exposed. A PSA member went on to state “ I think Agriculture Ministry and the Divisions that fall under them have some of the worst management heads. The PM continues to say only essentials but I don’t know what is so important that they want all staff out. The payroll clerks are out doing the necessary but they still want people out and what’s even worse, is the division I work in, they don’t have any ink for printing or photocopying, the AC is not properly working but they still want us to be out.. Guess it’s just to watch them.”