227 new covid19 cases, 5 more deaths – 6th delta case confirmed

THERE were five new covid19 deaths and 227 new infections according to the Ministry of Health's daily covid19 update on Sunday.

The ministry also confirmed on Sunday that TT had recorded its sixth confirmed case of the covid19 Delta variant.

The country's total number of positive case since March 12, 2020 is 45,714, with 40,480 people recovering, 3,904 active positive cases and the five new deaths reported on Sunday, bringing to 1,330, the total overall number of deaths.

The ministry said that 300 people are in hospital recovering from the virus.

There are 78 patients at step down facilities, 127 in State quarantine facilities and 3,299 self-isolating at home.

As of Sunday, 521,770 people have been partially vaccinated ie, receiving the first of a two-dose vaccine regime. There are 407,768 people receiving complete vaccination with the two-dose regime and 5,328 fully vaccinated using the Johnson and Johnson single-dose regime. This means that a total of 413,096 people are deemed to be fully vaccinated.

Sunday's reported new cases reflects samples taken between September 01 to September 04. The release also said that 135,319 tests were done at private health facilities.

On the delta variant, the ministry the sixth confirmed patient is a national who returned to Trinidad from the United States on August 8, this after the patient returned a negative PCR test (taken 72-hours prior to arrival) as per existing quarantine protocols.

With the confirmation, the patient has been isolated and all contacts were immediately quarantined and swabbed. The covid19 test results for all contacts were negative. The patient will remain in isolation until the enhanced discharge criteria for persons with COVID-19 Variants of Concern is achieved.

The presence of the Delta Variant was confirmed via gene sequencing at the laboratory of the Faculty of Medical Sciences, University of the West Indies.