Even as the Caribbean Pub­lic Health Agency (Carpha) in­ves­ti­gates re­ports claim­ing T&T has de­tect­ed cas­es of han­tavirus, the Min­istry of Health yes­ter­day de­nied the claims and dis­missed a cir­cu­lat­ing memo about school clo­sures as fake.

The is­sue sur­faced dur­ing Carpha’s vir­tu­al me­dia brief­ing on han­tavirus and the Caribbean af­ter Bar­ba­dos-based me­dia out­let Na­tion News asked ex­ec­u­tive di­rec­tor Dr Lisa In­dar about re­ports cir­cu­lat­ing in T&T. In­dar said she, too, re­ceived the mes­sage dur­ing the brief­ing, but stressed there was no ev­i­dence to con­firm a han­tavirus case in this coun­try.

She said Carpha was in con­tact with the Min­istry of Health to ver­i­fy the claim, but not­ed the in­for­ma­tion did not orig­i­nate from the min­istry or any recog­nised health au­thor­i­ty.