Cuban nurses to help in covid19 fight

The Government will get the help of Cuban nurses in the fight against covid19. This was revealed by Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh at Monday’s virtual media briefing.

This follows other Caribbean and international countries who have received assistance from Cuban medical professionals. Jamaica, St Lucia, Barbados and Italy are among the countries who have accepted such help.

Asked if TT would receive any such help, Deyalsingh said it has always been the Government’s policy to seek Cuban professionals where there is a lack of that particular speciality in TT.

“As per covid19, we do have a cohort of intensive-care nurses coming in. We signed off on that about three weeks ago. Interviews were done online to judge their suitability, language skills and so on. So the answer is yes.

“They will deploy in our intensive care unit under the directions of Dr Anthony Parkinson who we have brought on to manage the whole intensive care unit response across TT.”

He did not specify when the nurses would arrive.

Asked about private institutions like St Augustine Private Lab continuing to offer covid19 tests, Parasram said only the Caribbean Public Health Agency’s (CARPHA) tests are recognised. He said the ministry was looking into ramping up testing and TT having its own capacity to test but will only do so when CARPHA validates its testing.

“I don’t think any of the local labs have been validated by CARPHA at this point.”

He said CARPHA and the Trinidad Public Health Laboratory were in contact with local labs to let them know where they stand, and would continue to do so to ensure the safety of the population.

Parasram said TT has a rigorous process when looking at the specification to ensure the quality of any medical equipment it receives from anywhere in the world. He said TT is not using any rapid tests for covid19 at this point. He said TT received rapid PCR kits from China and the specifications were looked at by the Trinidad Public Health lab and CARPHA prior to receiving the supplies.

Parasram said even in the times of emergency, the standard of quality is maintained.

He said, when asked about the status of the covid19 patients at the different health facilities, there were three cases in the intensive care unit (ICU) at Couva with two stable and one critical.

He said there were 14 stable cases and 48 “ambulatory” cases which means that the patients can walk about and have mild illness, some even having have no symptoms at present.

He said at Caura there were five ambulatory cases. Parasram added there were a number of cases awaiting swab results and they were also being held at Caura to protect the population.

“If we have highly suspect people, we are also using Caura as a holding bay while we are waiting for test results to come back.”

He said CARPHA is testing people with travel histories, people linked with suspected cases and confirmed cases and is also testing another category called severe respiratory illness.

He said this means if a person has no link with those listed above and presents at the health facilities with severe acute respiratory illness of any form, that person will be tested.

Asked if anyone has yet been charged under the Quarantine Act, Parasram said no. He said the act has been used to put people into facilities.

Deyalsingh said ventilators arrived as planned, and a rolling stock of ventilators would be coming in intermittently. He added that not every covid19 patient needs to go on a ventilator. He said only five per cent may need ICU care or ventilator support, and the ventilator stock is about 160.

Parasram said once numbers stay low, TT would have enough ventilators.