[UPDATED] Minister: Six more ICU beds for covid patients in Tobago

Saturday 4 December 2021

A ventilator which has been set up at the Scarborough General Hospital for covid19 patients. -

Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh has said the Tobago Regional Health Authority’s (TRHA) intensive care unit capacity has been and will continue to be increased.

Speaking at the ministry's covid19 virtual update on Saturday, he said Tobago has ten beds, of which seven are occupied. Also, a few ICU nurses were sent to Tobago, and the TRHA was included in the advance training for ICU nurses.

“We have been working with the Tobago Regional Health Authority and Udecott with the Ministry of Health coordinating under the Emergency Operations Centre control that six more ICUs will be operational gradually over the next week or so.”

In addition, more testing kits and 30 oxygen concentrators were recently sent to Tobago so the RHA would have sufficient oxygen supply for low to medium-flow oxygen patients.

“We want to make sure that they have capacity on the island to test and to treat.”

A release from the Tobago Health Authority’s Division of Health, Wellness and Family Development on Saturday said the island had 42 new cases in the 24 hours leading up to Friday at 10 pm.

There are 826 active cases with 48 in state isolation, 771 in home isolation, and no one in step down facilities.

There was one new death, a 56-year-old man with comorbidities, and three discharges.

Since the beginning of the pandemic in TT, there were 4,334 positive cases, 3,379 recovered patients, and 129 deaths, in Tobago.

On Friday, the Prime Minister said if more people cooperated Tobago could have achieved herd immunity.

Speaking during a media conference at the official residence in Blenheim, Dr Rowley said those on the island were feeding the virus by not following the health protocols and refusing to be vaccinated.

He said: “Of course, I am worried about our citizens, and it is one of the main worries that I have. My concern is that there are so many people in Tobago who decide to take on the virus, ride it out, not use the help given by the vaccine and I must say I’m a little disappointed by that.”

The vaccines, he said, were available, but admitted "you can take the horse to the water, you cannot force it to drink."

He said Tobago’s population had the possibility to isolate the virus.

“We had to have a high level of vaccination and it was relatively easy if there was the personal responsibility and personal cooperation – it would have been relatively easy to vaccinate everybody in Tobago, but it just so happens that a significant number of people in Tobago decide that they don’t want the vaccine and will not be vaccinated and that stymied this hope and expectations that we could have had, in Tobago, a population that was able to demonstrate herd immunity of 90-odd per cent vaccination. We got the vaccines, we ran the programmes, we have the staff and people just decided they want to run the gauntlet with the virus.”

He said the Government’s response cannot be another lockdown in the country.

This story has been updated with additional details. The following is the original article.

Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh said the Tobago Regional Health Authority’s intensive care unit capacity has been and will continue to be increased.