Six new cases of Brazilian variant detected in Trinidad and Tobago

Six additional cases of the Brazilian variant (P1) of covid19 have been detected in Trinidad and Tobago.

A release from the Ministry of Health on Friday stated that one was a non-national from the Nariva/ Mayaro county who was the primary contact of another P1 case. The other five were nationals from the St George West.

This brings the total local number of confirmed covid19 samples of the P1 variant to 15. Health officials are testing random sample for the potentially stronger strain of the virus among people who have covid19. One of the earlier cases also came from Venezuelan migrant.

On Friday, 326 new cases were confirmed and four additional deaths taking the total number of people who died from complications arising out of covid19 to 169. The number of cases in the past week have jumped significantly prompting the government to enforce stricter measures to prohibit gathering in public places.

The ministry encouraged people, even those vaccinated, to continue obeying the public health measures such as wearing masks, regular washing and sanitising of hands, and physical distancing.