[UPDATED] Child among record 28 covid19 deaths

A child is among a record number of 28 people to die of covid19 since the outbreak of the pandemic in Trinidad and Tobago in March 2020. Their deaths take the number of people to succumb to the virus to 1,947.

According to the Ministry of Health’s Saturday update, those who died were 13 elderly men, eight elderly women, five middle-aged men, one middle-aged woman and one child.

Twenty people had comorbidities and eight had no known medical conditions, the ministry said. it gave no details on the child’s age or if the child had a medical condition.

For the first 20 days of November, 238 people died from covid, according to the ministry.

On November 13, the ministry’s principal medical officer of health Dr Maryam Abdool-Richards said there were five children in the parallel health care system with three of them in the intensive care unit.

It is not known if the child who died was among those five. On June 24, a teenage girl with pre-existing medical issues was among 16 covid19 deaths recorded that day.

In addition, the ministry on Saturday reported 592 new cases were recorded from samples taken between November 16-19.

For October, the number of cases was 6,620, while November to date it was 8,148 which increased total cases, since the start of the pandemic, to 65,485.

Sixty-seven people were discharged from public health facilities while 182 recovered from home isolation, bringing the number of people recovered to 55,047, and the number of active cases to 8,491, an increase of 315.

There are 501 people in hospital – with 25 in the intensive care unit and 24 in the high dependency unit at Couva Hospital. There were also 7,280 in home isolation, 109 in step down facilities, and 92 in state quarantine facilities.

The ministry added that 5,346 of 5,830 people or 91.7 per cent of patients in the parallel health care system were unvaccinated.

Chief Medical Officer Dr Roshan Parasram, at the ministry’s virtual press conference on Saturday morning, said with the current spike in cases, people must adhere to the public health regulations more than ever.

He said, “I would say vaccinate as quickly as you can but vaccination will only get us this far in the middle of a surge because it takes some time for a person to be fully vaccinated. So we have to go back to basics. Wear our masks appropriately is one of the most important rules that we have.”

He asked that people continue to wash their hands regularly, keep their distance from others, if ill, stay at home, and to stay at home if the reason to leave is not essential.

“We’re getting a lot of complaints of people, some of them even being (covid19) positive, and going out to supermarkets and other places. If you have a viral illness in the country at this point in time, there is possibly a one in two chance of it being covid.”

He added that vaccines are being widely offered but at the end of the day it is up to the population to access them.

Another problem, he said, was that some private medical practitioners and labs were not reporting cases to the relevant authorities. He said under public health regulation 13, they have to report positive cases to the CMO and regional health authorities.

In addition, he said, hospital occupancy in the parallel health care system had been continuously increasing since the end of September but there was a limit to the number of medical personnel in the country.

He said if the number of people needing hospitalisation continues to increase, personnel would have to be moved to deal with covid19 patients, and the ministry would have to, once again, decrease the availability of elective services such as out-patient clinics and surgeries.

This story has been updated with additional details. It was previously published under the headline Record 28 people die, including child, from covid19

A record number of 28 people died in the last 24 hours, including a child, bringing the total number of deaths since the outbreak of the pandemic to 1,947.

According to the Ministry of Health’s Saturday afternoon update, those who succumbed to the virus were 13 elderly men, eight elderly women, five middle-aged men, one middle-aged woman and one child.

A total of 20 people had comorbidities and eight had no known medical conditions, the ministry said.

For the first 20 days of November 238 people died from covid, according to the ministry.

On November 13, the ministry's principal medical officer of health Dr Maryam Abdool-Richards said there were five children in the parallel health care system with three of them were in the intensive care unit.

It is not known if the child who died was among those five. On June 24, a teenage girl with pre-existing medical issues was among the 16 covid19 deaths recorded that day.

In addition, 592 new cases were recorded from samples taken between November 16-19.

For October, the number of new cases was 6,620, while November to date was 8,148 which increased the total number of positive cases since the start of the pandemic to 65,485.

Sixty-seven people were discharged from public health facilities while 182 recovered from home isolation, bringing the total number of people recovered to 55,047, and the number of active cases to 8,491, an increase of 315.

There are 501 people in hospital – with 25 in the intensive care unit and 24 in the high dependency unit at Couva Hospital. There were also 7,280 in home isolation, 109 in step down facilities, and 92 in state quarantine facilities.

It added that 5,346 of 5,830 people or 91.7 per cent of patients in the parallel health care system were unvaccinated.