503 in parallel health care system

There are now 503 people spread throughout the parallel health care system set up for covid19 in Trinidad and Tobago.

The statement came from CMO Dr Roshan Parasram at the Ministry of Health’s virtual press conference on Monday.

Parasram said covid19 test results for 103 of the candidates were still pending.

Those still awaiting results include 100 students from UWI's Mona Campus, Jamaica, who came into the country on Saturday and three members of the group of TT citizens who returned from Venezuela on Friday. The students are being housed at UWI’s Canada Hall, St Augustine.

Of the 400 remaining, 11 are at UWI's campus in Debe, two at the Cascadia Hotel, 14 at the Chancellor Hotel, 29 at the National Racquet Centre in Tacarigua, 12 health care workers are at NAPA, eight are at the Home of Football in Couva, 24 at the Brooklyn facility in Sangre Grande, and 300 on the Enchantment of the Sea cruise ship docked in Port of Spain.

Six people who were on board the cruise ship tested positive for the virus over the weekend and were taken to Caura Hospital for treatment.

Minister of Health Terrence Deyalsingh said the parallel health care system, before the arrival of the TT nationals from the cruise ships and UWI, had a capacity of about 922.

He said of those, 400 to 500 spaces were dedicated to hospital care and the remainder to quarantine and step-down services.

“Just because you have 500 beds, so to speak, at normal circumstances in a hospital setting, when you start to reach an occupancy rate if about 80 to 90 per cent, you are considered filled. You don’t want to go beyond that.”

He added that this percentage changes for infectious diseases, decreasing to about 75 per cent, or about 306 available spaces.

“We have to wait until we turn over those people before we bring in more,” said Deyalsingh.

He described the call by members of the public to reopen the country's borders as “uninformed, uneducated and, quite frankly, dangerous to TT.”

Deyalsingh said the next group of TT nationals to be brought home included 85 from Barbados who will be housed at the UWI's halls of residence, five from the Disney Wonder cruise, 17 from another unidentified cruise ship to be sent to the Debe facility, and 49 oilfield workers who have been in Mexico since May 6.

The Mexico contingent’s quarantine will be paid for by their employers and not the government.

Deyalsingh said two more groups were to be brought home soon but the arrangements were still pending.

TT has had 123 covid19 cases so far.