Updated: Deyalsingh: MoH to begin post-covid19 studies

A series of studies is expected to be done on the coronavirus and its impact on TT's infrastructure and systems, Minister of Health Terrence Deyalsingh said on Thursday.

At the Ministry of Health’s daily covid19 briefing, Deyalsingh said, given the current availability of clinical data, the ministry will seek to improve its understanding of the disease and its impact on various aspects of the government's response to better prepare future administrations.

Deyalsingh also announced that government, through his ministry, will create a steering committee to be chaired by Chief Medical Officer Dr Roshan Parasram. He added that the changing behaviour of the virus prompted a more detailed study.

"This data must not go to waste, but it should be used to the benefit of TT, not only for the second or third waves, but to also inform how future governments respond to pandemics.
"The Ministry of Health is going to be proactive by doing this retrospective study of 116 cases so that when we prepare for future developments we will have a model, not only for covid, but a model for how future governments can deal with pandemics.

"We will be reaching out to all agencies, researchers and people to be part of this Ministry of Health proactive stance.
"We also intend to include actual patients to come forward and give us their experience."
Deyalsingh said the research would be useful in understanding any weaknesses in the current system and develop plans to better strengthen collaboration and response between agencies.

Asked to give a timeline on when the research may begin, Deyalsingh said after the terms of reference are given ethical approval by the CMO, the studies may begin by late next week.
He said the scope of the studies would range from public health mitigation strategies and the effectiveness of the parallel healthcare systems to communication and behavioural changes.

The ministry, in its 4 pm update on Thursday, 2173 samples were submitted to the Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA) and UWI site for testing so far. TT has recorded 116 covid19 cases, eight deaths and 103 discharged recovered patients to date.

This story has been adjusted to include additional details. See original post below.

A series of studies is expected to be done on the coronavirus and it's impact on TT's infrastructure and systems, said Minister of Health Terrence Deyalsingh on Thursday.
At the Ministry of Health’s daily covid19 briefing, Deyalsingh said given the current availability of clinical data, the ministry will be seeking to improve it's understanding of the disease and it's impact on various aspects of the government's response to better prepare future administrations.
Deyalsingh also announced the government through the Ministry of Health will be creating a steering committee to be chaired by Chief Medical Officer Dr Roshan Parasram and said the changing behaviour of the virus prompted a more detailed study.
"This data must not go to waste, but it should be used to the benefit of TT not only for the second or third waves but to also inform how future governments respond to pandemics.
"The Ministry of Health is going to be proactive by doing this retrospective study of 116 cases so that when we prepare for future developments we will have a model, not only for covid, but a model for how future governments can deal with pandemics. We will be reaching out to all agencies, researchers and people to be part of this Ministry of Health proactive stance. We also intend to include actual patients to come forward and give us their experience."
Deyalsingh said the scope of the studies would range from public health mitigation strategies and the effectiveness of the parallel healthcare systems to communication and behavioural changes.