CMO: No covid19 case at West Shore

There is no case of the covid19 virus at the West Shore Medical private hospital, Chief Medical Officer Dr Roshan Parasram said on Saturday.

“My medical officer would have spoken to the medical director of West Shore who denied there were any cases at the health facility,” Parasaram said. He was responding to reports on social media that there were two alleged cases of covid19 at the private hospital, West Shore Medical, Cocorite.

There have been heightened concerns about the virus which has spread from China to other Asian countries, Europe, the United States and Latin America.

There were two confirmed cases of the virus in Brazil, which borders Venezuela. There has been an influx of Venezuelans into TT to escape the economic crisis in their country.

TT has placed a 14-day quarantine on travellers from China, Japan, Iran, South Korea and Singapore. Jamaica this week imposed a similar restriction for the countries except Japan. Barbados has no such policy, at this time, but was monitoring a crewman on a cruise ship anchored there this week. During a press conference, the prime minister, Mia Mottley, said smaller islands such as St Kitts did not have the means to deal with an outbreak.

Asked on Friday if TT was considering helping Caricom countries to respond to the virus, Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh said there has been no request for any assistance.

“Each country has to take steps to protect its citizens and provide the necessary resources. You cannot be transporting people with coronavirus by air, that is a no-no. Each member state, as CARPHA (Caribbean Public Health Agency), PAHO (Pan American World Health Organisation) and WHO (World Health Organisation) have done, has to take all measures to deal with their entries. We do not advise, we have CARPHA and PAHO to do so.”

Deyalsingh said TT was not cancelling flights.

“I have no authority to cancel flights. We have imposed travel restrictions.”

He said while there were no confirmed or suspected cases in TT, the authorities needed to continue to be proactive and vigilant.