Active covid19 cases down to 616

There are 12 new cases of covid19 in TT, including one recently repatriated person, bringing the number of positive cases to 6,864. However, the number of active cases went down to 616, according to the Ministry of Health's update at 4 pm on Saturday.

Earlier, Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh noted the last death due to covid19 was on December 2, which was the last of nine over the past 21 days.

During the Health Ministry’s virtual press conference on Saturday morning, he praised the people of TT for following the health regulations as the number of new covid19 cases has decreased, and so have the deaths.

Chief Medical Officer Dr Roshan Parasram gave the country’s figures as of Friday afternoon.

There have been no new deaths so the count remains at 122, but there were 627 active cases.

Of the 6,852 cases since March, 6,103 recovered.

Forty-six people were in hospital, bring the facilities to 39 per cent occupancy. Twenty-six are at the Couva Hospital and Multi-Training Facility, of whom two are in the intensive care unit and one in the high dependency unit. There are two patients at the Caura Hospital, and 18 at the Scarborough Regional Hospital at the Fort.

Twenty-six patients were in step-down facilities, 11 at the Claxton Bay Correctional Facility, seven at UWI Debe, and eight in Tobago.

He said the state quarantine facilities were almost at maximum capacity at 338 people, and there were 536 people in home self-isolation, 177 of whom are in the prison system.

In the public health sector, 38,252 people were tested, and as of December 3, 28,177 in the private sector. This gave a total of 66,429 people tested in TT.

A day later, according to the ministry’s covid19 press release, the number of active cases decreased to 616 despite the 12 new cases as people were discharged from various facilities. This beings the number of recovered patients to 6,126.

There are now 45 people in hospital, the number in state quarantine facilities remains at 338, and 25 in step down facilities. There are also 534 people in home isolation, with 177 in the care of the prison system.

Parasram also broke down Friday’s numbers of active cases by location.

The country of Victoria had 21.2 per cent, St George East had 16.8 per cent, St George Central has 16.2 per cent, Caroni had 15.8 per cent, Tobago had 9.4 per cent, St Patrick had 9.1 per cent, St George West had 4.7 per cent, and Nariva/Mayaro had 1.7 per cent of TT’s active cases.

Fifty-five per cent of them were asymptomatic, 25.6 per cent were symptomatic, 11.9 per cent were transferred to facilities, and 7.5 per cent recovered.

Looking at the total number of positive cases, he said the 20 to 39 age group had the largest number of cases with 32.3 per cent, and the second largest was the 40 to 59 age group at 29.32 per cent. However, he did not attribute the numbers to neglect of covid19 guidelines.

“Because schools are closed we expect that the largest population on the move at this point is the working population which will, more or less, be persons between 20 and 59 in most instances. So they have a greater chance of contracting the disease. So (its) not necessarily that they are not taking the precautions as other age groups are but they are at greater risk just by virtue of being out of their homes for a greater length of time.”