Trinidad and Tobago records highest daily covid19 case number to date – 781

Trinidad and Tobago has recorded its highest number of daily covid19 cases to date, with 781 cases being reported on Wednesday.

This is only the second time that the number of daily cases has crossed 700, the first being 708 on May 21.

Six deaths were also recorded on Wednesday, the lowest number since October 29.

The 781 cases continue the trend of rising daily cases which began in October.

The Health Ministry has said the rising numbers are due at least partially to the presence of the delta variant, which is three to four times more transmissible than the original variant.

Officials continue to implore people to get vaccinated and follow the "3 Ws" of washing hands, watching distance and wearing masks.

The death toll now stands at 1,891. The Health Ministry’s covid19 update on Wednesday said the people who died were three elderly men, two middle-aged men, and one middle-aged woman, all with comorbidities. It said five of these people had multiple comorbidities, including diabetes, hypertension, and heart disease, while one person had one comorbidity, namely obesity.

There are 7,689 active cases.

Since March 2020, there have been 63,865 cases, of which 54,285 have recovered. The number of people tested in public and private facilities is 425,989.

At present there are 473 patients in hospital, the third highest for the pandemic period to date.

Of these, there are 89 people at the Couva Hospital and Multi-Training Facility, with 26 in the intensive care unit and 25 in the high dependency unit. There are 49 people at the Caura Hospital, 46 at the Augustus Long Hospital, 60 at the St Ann’s Hospital, 59 at the Arima General Hospital, 73 at the new Point Fortin Hospital, 57 at the St James Medical Complex, 34 at the Scarborough Regional Hospital, Fort King George and six at the Scarborough Regional Hospital, Signal Hill.

There are 91 patients in step-down facilities, with none at the Claxton Bay Correctional Facility, 50 at UWI Debe, 22 at UTT Valsayn, zero at the Point Fortin Area Hospital, nine at the Port of Spain field hospital, two at the Couva Field Hospital, eight at the Tacarigua Facility, and none in Tobago.

There are 95 people in state quarantine facilities, and 6,344 people in home self-isolation. There are 196 recovered community cases and 61 people have been discharged from public health facilities.

The ministry said 92.3 per cent or 5,033 of 5,453 patients in the parallel healthcare system were unvaccinated, based on data from July 22-October 27.

The update said the total number of people vaccinated with their first dose of a two-dose regime was 634,603. Of these, 120,100 took the AstraZeneca vaccine, 407,041 took the Sinopharm vaccine, and 107,462 took the Pfizer vaccine.

The number of people vaccinated with their second dose was 591,126, while the number of people vaccinated with the one-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine was 39,655. There are 630,781 people who have been fully vaccinated. A total of 6,639 people have received an additional primary dose.