Covid19 spike worries Tracy: Overcrowded hospital will be problematic

THA Secretary of Health, Wellness and Family Development Tracy Davidson-Celestine has stressed Tobago will not have the medical personnel to care for covid19 patients if the island’s health sector becomes overwhelmed.

She was speaking to reporters on Friday at the launch of the division’s east Tobago covid19 vaccination drive-through centre at the Roxborough Administrative Complex.

Davidson-Celestine renewed her appeal for people to be vaccinated.

She said she does not want the island to suffer the same fate as Jamaica, which currently has a high infection rate, owing to vaccine hesitancy.

“In Jamaica, because of the large number of people who are unvaccinated, their ICU is now overcrowded and their hospitals are now overcrowded,” she said.

“I don’t want us to get to that point in Tobago, because we just don’t have the human resources to be able to provide the level of care to everyone who would become very ill.

“That is why I continue to appeal to our people in Tobago to come out and get the vaccines – all of the adults, and now we are focused on getting all of the children 18 years and under vaccinated as well.”

Davidson-Celestine again blamed misinformation for the high level of vaccine hesitancy.

She said she recently received two videos which sought to discourage people from taking the vaccine.

“I think it’s time we put that negative information aside and focus on the positive, and the positives are all around us.

"People’s lives are being preserved if it is that they have taken the vaccine, and for those who have not yet taken the vaccines – they are dying.”

Tobago recorded 103 new covid19 cases in the last two days, which took the active total to 598.

The division said 39 patients are in state isolation, 557 in home isolation and two in ICU.

Deaths also rose to 52 after an 83-year-old woman with comorbidities succumbed to the virus.

In an update on its vaccination drive, the division said 15,661 people have received at least one dose of a covid19 vaccine. It said 10,846 people received their full two doses.