[UPDATED] TIPPING POINT

HEALTH Minister Terrence Deyalsingh said the country is at a “tipping point” this weekend and could have an exponential rise in covid-19 cases if the almost 20,000 nationals who returned to the country recently do not self-quarantine.

“This is not a joke, not a drill, not a practice run. This is the real thing.”

He was speaking at a media conference held at the Health Ministry, Park Street, Port of Spain, Friday.

He noted the country’s borders were closed last week Sunday and prior to that approximately 19,852 travellers and resident citizens came into TT.

“That is where the tipping point is, because the vast majority of these 19,852 would have come from three major countries: the UK, Canada and the US. And we see what is happening in the UK and the US especially.”

He stressed the country needs to have these 19,852 people stay at home and self-quarantine and pointed out that symptoms generally appear between seven to eight days after exposure. He said the country was now coming into the period where it is most critical for them to self-isolate.

“However we know some persons do not heed these warnings.”

He referred to an article about Guyana where people were not behaving responsibly.

Minister: TT has good bed capacity

Deyalsingh said the healthcare system has to respond to the situation and has built out and continues to build out primary/basic, secondary and tertiary care facilities in case there is an exponential rise in cases “which we expect will start to hit from this weekend, seven to eight days after our borders were closed.”

He explained primary/basic care was for those patients with mild symptoms that did not need to be in a hospital but just needed supportive care, paracetamol, and some water.

Those patients still need to be isolated. For that response, available beds have been ramped up to 300-400 using a combination of camps like Balandra and other facilities. That will be implemented by Sunday.

Secondary and tertiary care, he said, are for the minority of patients that require hospital and ICU care. For that, they have 254 beds at Couva, 100 beds at Caura, Augustus Long has been re purposed to provide 50 beds, and in Arima, there are 90 beds making a total of 494.

Deyalsingh said the country was in a good position regarding bed capacity but that “could amount to nought” if the 19,852 did not behave responsibly.

He reported that intensivist specialist Dr Anthony Parkinson, formerly attached to the Port of Spain General Hospital, has been brought in to manage the ICU capacity and protocols to treat with covid-19 patients at Caura, and at Arima if necessary, under the direction of the Chief Medical Officer.

He also reported that in the next couple of days 100 house officers and 70 retired nurses had been brought on, with some of the nurses working for free. Healthcare workers are also receiving a separate hotline to address their issues.

He also announced that all elective surgeries have been put on hold and rescheduled to sometime in the future.

66 positive tests so far

He said the number of samples sent to Carpha for testing was 453 as at Friday, the number that tested positive was 66. He pointed out that out of the group that tested positive 47 came from one source, a cruise ship (that went to Guadeloupe).

“Which means out of that we have 19 (other) cases. I give you this statistic not to blame anything or blame anybody. But the fact is, that should give us some degree of comfort in that our risk of community spread is lower coming out of those 19 cases versus the entire 66 cases.”

He reported that contact tracing for the 19 cases was well under way, especially primary contacts and secondary contacts too. He said that one person has been discharged – though the ministry was not identifying which one – after being asymptomatic for seven days and having two negative tests 24 hours apart. He added the patient has been asked to self-isolate for a further seven days.

At a media conference, Monday Parasram said that medical officials were planning to test this country’s first confirmed case very soon and if after two negatives the patient would be discharged.

Deyalsingh also reported this country’s second covid-19 death.

Also Friday the Prime Minister met with Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodriguez at the Diplomatic Centre.

“The meeting focused on the strategy being deployed in both countries to combat covid-19,” an Office of the Prime Minister release stated. Rodriguez is directly responsible for the covid-19 response in Venezuela, the release added.

The World Health Organisation situation report for March 26 reported globally 462,684 confirmed cases, 49,219 of which were new, and 20 834 deaths, 2401 of which were new.

This story was originally published with the title "Deyalsingh: Critical period for 20,000 to self-quarantine" and has been adjusted to include additional details. See original post below.

HEALTH Minister Terrence Deyalsingh has said the country is at a "tipping point" this weekend.

TT could see an exponential rise in covid-19 cases if almost 20,000 nationals who returned to the country in the past few weeks do not self-quarantine themselves.

He was speaking at a media conference at the Health Ministry on Friday.

He said TT is one of more than 150 countries around the world that are affected by the covid19 pandemic.

"The global figures are quite alarming, they are quite frightening, and countries around the world are doing the best that they can to mitigate risk and to protect their citizens."

The World Health Organisation situation report for March 26 reported globally 462,684 confirmed cases, 49,219 of which were new, and 20,834 deaths, 2,401 of which were new.

Deyalsingh said as at Friday 453 samples had been sent to CARPHA for testing. Of those, 66 had tested positive.

He pointed out that out of the group that tested positive, 47 came from one source, a cruise ship (that went to Guadeloupe).

"Which means out of that we have 19 (other) cases.

"I give you this statistic not to blame anything or blame anybody. But the fact is, that should give us some degree of comfort, in that our risk of community spread is lower, coming out of those 19 cases, versus the entire 66 cases."

He reported that contact tracing for the 19 cases was well under way, especially primary contacts and secondary contacts.

He also said one recovering covid19 patient has been discharged though the ministry was not identifying which one.

At a media conference on Monday Chief Medical Officer Roshan Parasram said medical officials were planning to test TT's first confirmed case very soon, and if two tests came back negative, the patient would be discharged.

Deyalsingh also reported this country's second covid-19 death.

He noted TT's borders were closed last Sunday and before that approximately 19,852 travellers and residents came into TT.

"That is where the tipping point is, because the vast majority of these 19,852 would have come from three major countries: the UK, Canada and the US. And we see what is happening in the UK and the US especially."

He stressed the country needs these 19,852 people to stay at home and self-quarantine.

He pointed out that symptoms generally appear between seven to eight days after exposure.

He said the country was now coming into the period where it is most critical for them to self-isolate.

"However, we know some persons do not heed these warnings."

He referred to an article about Guyana, where people were reportedly not behaving responsibly.