[Updated] 27 new covid19 cases, one additional death

One more person has died from covid19, bringing the total to 131.

In addition, the 4 pm update from the Health Ministry on Saturday reported 27 new cases from samples taken from January 13 to 15. One of the 27 was from Tobago, bringing the total number of cases since March 2020 to 7,370.

The total number of active cases is 316, an increase of 16 from Friday, and the total number of recovered cases is 6,923, an increase of ten.

There are 40 people in hospital, 300 in state quarantine facilities and four at step-down facilities. There were also 245 in home isolation. Nine people were transferred from UWI, Debe to Caura Hospital to facilitate preventative maintenance on the building and they were sent to home isolation.

On Saturday at the virtual press conference, Chief Medical Officer Dr Roshan Parasram said of the 300 in quarantine, 99 were at Kapok hotel, 15 at Chancellor Hotel, 23 at Cascadia hotel, 84 at Freedom Hall, UWI, six at Paria Suites, and 72 at the Regent Star.

He noted there were 30 patients in hospital. Couva Hospital had 15 patients with one in the Intensive Care Unit, Caura Hospital had seven patients, St Ann’s Hospital had one, and Scarborough Regional Hospital had seven.

There were also 15 at step-down facilities – one person at the Claxton Bay facility, 12 at the UWI Debe campus, and two in Tobago.

Parasram said the ministry had about 200,000 antigen test kits, also called rapid tests, which it hoped to start using soon.

He explained that data was being analysed to validate if the manufacturer’s claim of the tests being approximately 93 per cent accurate. He expected some of the findings would be presented to the ministry next week.

Parasram added that recently PAHO director Dr Carissa Etienne said eight countries in the Americas reported the presence of two new variants of covid19. Brazil, Canada, Chile, Ecuador, Jamaica, Mexico, Peru and the US had reported the new strain of the virus generated in England, while Brazil and Canada announced the presence of the South African variant.

Asked about reports of ice cream testing positive for covid19 in China, Parasram noted that covid19 could settle on surfaces, including food, but he said it did not mean the virus could be transmitted in that way.”

Still, he said the ministry would continue to pay attention to any developments and determine if changes would need to be made to public health measures.

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"[Updated] 27 new covid19 cases, one additional death"

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