CMO: WHO protocols for bodies of covid-19 patients

CHIEF Medical Officer Dr Roshan Parasram said World Health Organisation (WHO) protocols were being followed in treating with the bodies of covid-19 patients.

He was speaking at a media conference held at the Health Ministry Friday. The country has recorded its second covid-19 death and Parasram said both patients had pre-existing conditions and were over 60.

He said that people can contract covid-19 from a body and that is why WHO protocols are so stringent. He added, however, that the level of spread does not seem to be as high as Ebola but was similar to H1N1.

"And therefore we taking the necessary precautions."

Parasram said that the ministry had been in consultation with the Inter Religious Organisation heads to see how the WHO protocols could be tailored to the country's needed. He explained the principle was to limit contact with the body in any form or fashion to reduce spread. He said the WHO guideline spoke broadly about laying for burial or cremation but for cremation a crematorium only and for burial at the grave site only.

"So there's no home visits, there's no church visits, other than from the funeral agency to the grave or from the funeral agency to the crematorium."

Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh said the undertakers' association wrote him three weeks ago and a meeting was set up with them and the CEO of North Central Regional Health Authority Davlin Thomas. He said in the minutes of the meeting it was spelt out what funeral homes were doing to protect funeral workers.

Deyalsingh reported the country's second covid-19 death was a national of TT and an elderly gentleman with pre-existing medical conditions. He reiterated the ministry will wait for a reasonable time for the family to be informed, bring in their documentation so the death certificate can be processed, and to process and grieve before it becomes a public issue.

"I must remind the public that this is not an impersonal issue. This is not 'person number three' (or) 'person number four'. These unfortunate people who have died to their families and friends they are real-life people. Flesh and blood. They could be a father, an uncle, a brother. So we at the ministry have taken a very moral, ethical stance in the way we treat with the dissemination of information regarding the deaths of any covid-19 patient."

He stressed there would be no separate announcement for covid-19 deaths but it would be contained in the regular 10 am or 4 pm covid-19 announcement in deference to the families and their feelings.

Parasram was also asked about countries like Spain returning faulty test kits to China and whether there was any concern about local testing. He replied that testing is done either by rapid test kits or the Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) test which tests the level of antigens and is almost 99 per cent specific.

"So it will give you very little false positives and very little false negatives."

He noted that locally only Carpha uses the PCR test and not the rapid test kits which the Pan American Health Organisation does not recommend.