22 covid deaths, 338 new cases recorded

The first three days of 2022 have produced a combined total of 1,098 new covid19 cases combined, as the Health Ministry’s update on Monday said 338 new cases were detected in samples taken between December 29 and January 2.

It said 22 deaths were reported between Sunday and Monday, bringing the death toll to 2,936.

The comparable period in January 2021 had 18 cases and no deaths.

The ministry said the people who died were seven elderly men, six elderly women, five middle-aged men, and four middle-aged women. It said 12 of these people had multiple comorbidities, including a mix of diabetes, hypertension, kidney disease, obesity, asthma, cancer, and a history of strokes. Seven people each had only one comorbidity, while three people had no known comorbidities.

It said the number of active cases is now 15,183. Since March 2020, there have been 92,997 cases of covid19, of which 74,878 have recovered.

There are 462 patients in hospital. Of these, there are 116 people at the Couva Hospital and Multi-Training Facility, with 26 in the intensive care unit and 23 in the high dependency unit. There are 48 people at the Caura Hospital, 53 at the Augustus Long Hospital, nine at the St Ann’s Hospital, 68 at the Arima General Hospital, 88 at the new Point Fortin Hospital, 46 at the St James Medical Complex, 28 at the Scarborough Regional Hospital, Fort King George and six at the Scarborough Regional Hospital, Signal Hill.

There are 169 patients in step-down facilities, with none at the Claxton Bay Correctional Facility, 66 at UWI Debe, 21 at UTT Valsayn, 29 at the Point Fortin Area Hospital, 28 at the Port of Spain field hospital, none at the Couva Field Hospital, 18 at the Tacarigua Facility, and seven in Tobago.

There are 47 people in state quarantine facilities, and 14,214 people in home self-isolation. There are 546 recovered community cases and 66 people have been discharged from public health facilities.

The ministry said that 86.8 per cent or 8,973 of 10,336 patients in the parallel healthcare system were unvaccinated, based on data from July 22 to December 15.

The update said the total number of people vaccinated with their first dose of a two-dose regime was 663,843. Of these, 120,100 took the AstraZeneca vaccine, 421,028 took the Sinopharm vaccine, and 122,715 took the Pfizer vaccine.

The number of people vaccinated with their second dose was 620,118, while the number of people vaccinated with the one-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine was 48,864.

There are 668,982 people who have been fully vaccinated out of an eligible 1.1 million people. A total of 76,479 people have received an additional primary dose or a booster dose.

The number of people tested in both public and private facilities is 512,730, of which 225,721 were done at private facilities.