Tobago's largest covid19 clusters caused by family gatherings

Acting county medical officer for Tobago Dr Tiffany Hoyte said from November 25 the island experienced an upsurge of cases.

From then to now a total of 32 cases have been recorded. She said of these, 11 were children under 18.

On Monday four people were discharged. The island reported four new cases on Sunday.

Minister of Health Terrence Deyalsingh told a media conference last Saturday three birthday parties held in Tobago on November 22 and 28 and December 8 had resulted in 11 covid19 cases and one death.

Hoyte said Tobago's three major covid19 clusters came from family gatherings. Speaking at the division's weekly press conference on Tuesday afternoon, she said, "What we have found through our contact tracing is that we have had eight clusters of people who would have become infected from persons they came into contact with.

"Our three largest clusters arose because of family social gatherings. This was not due to friends' gatherings; it was strictly family members who had social gatherings, and as a result of that we have had three large clusters."

She called on Tobagonians to avoid family gatherings and turn to technology to host virtual "meet and greets."

Hoyte also revealed that some of the island's cases and primary contacts travelled by boat and plane while they had symptoms.

"We had an instance where one of the cases of someone residing in Tobago would have, while experiencing symptoms, taken public transport and travelled via the ferry and taken public transport in Trinidad.

"And then we have someone from Trinidad, while experiencing symptoms, would have taken the plane. This is why you have to treat everyone like they have covid19."

She said Tobago is still experiencing community spread and only eight of its cases weren't linked to any of the 139 cases.

On Tuesday morning, five covid19 patients in Tobago were discharged.

This took the number of active cases to 17.

In its daily update the Division of Health, Wellness and Family Development also reported there had been no new cases within the last 28 hours. The total number of positive samples is 139.

As of Tuesday, the total number of samples sent to the Caribbean Public Health Agency, the Tobago Regional Health Authority, UWI and other local testing sites was 2,103.