TT looking out for covid19 clusters

CHIEF Medical Officer (CMO) Dr Roshan Parasram has said efforts are being made to prevent any covid19 clusters forming anywhere in TT.

At Tuesday's virtual news conference, Parasram said, "We are at the sporadic stage, which means we may have one or two cases of local spread in between."

He explained that if one or two people with mild symptoms were to go any place where a large group of people gather, "You can have from that one person spread to thousands of people, as we have seen in other parts of the world."

Parasram said the ministry's GIS system is being used to ensure covid19 clusters are not forming anywhere in TT.

In places where one or two covid19 cases are in close proximity geographically, Parasram said pressure is put there "to ensure that it remains two and does not go on to ten or 50 or 1,000."

Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh said Cuban medical personnel who are coming to TT to assist in covid19 efforts will undergo a two-week quarantine on their arrival to ensure they do not have the virus, After that, Parasram said, they would be deployed as needed.

He explained there is no specific treatment yet for covid19. '

We are doing supportive care, and we are following our guidelines from the WHO (World Health Organisation) as was laid out from the start."

Parsaram said the Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA) and Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO) are TT's direct lines to deal with covid19. But he added that TT also gets advice from other international medical experts from countries like China and the United States.

Parasram said there was no evidence to support that cremation was better than burial or vice versa, when dealing with people who died from covid19.

"We are allowing both."

He added that cremation should be done in a crematorium and not on an open pyre.

On comments by paediatrician Dr Joanne Paul, Parasram said children cannot practise social distancing the way adults do. He added there was a greater risk of an asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic child spreading covid19 to other members of the family as opposed to a mildly symptomatic adult

On three members of a group of 22 people who were quarantined in Balandra last month, who initially tested negative but later tested positve for covid19, Parasram said they were doing well and there was. no major concern in terms of their clinical status.