THA health secretary grateful for fewer covid deaths

THA Secretary of Health, Wellness and Social Protection Dr Faith BYisrael has warned Tobagonians that the pandemic is not over. BYisrael's caution came on Wednesday as covid19 deaths continued to trend downwards.

There were a 71 deaths in December – the deadliest month of the pandemic for the island. However, infections and deaths began declining in 2022. There were 30 covid19 deaths in January and 11 in February.

On Wednesday, the division said Tobago’s covid19 death toll jumped to 244 overnight after two people, one of whom was fully vaccinated, died from complications associated with the virus.

It reported the island had 320 active covid19 cases.

The division said nine people were currently hospitalised, three of whom are fully vaccinated and six unvaccinated.

It said the island has 6,730 recovered patients.

BYisrael said several factors contributed to the decline in deaths.

“We have a new strain – the omicron strain – which we knew was more infectious but a little milder than delta, so people are getting covid19 but they not getting fatally ill, which we are extremely thankful for.”

She again warned that people should not be drawn into a false sense of security.

“We need to be careful, though, that we do not become complacent and do not think that this is the end of the pandemic. We are not sure where we are yet. Last year, about this time, we had very limited cases and then we suddenly had a spike again.

“So, we definitely need to be very conscious that that can happen again – infections happen in waves. We happen to be on the down end of this particular wave but we cannot be complacent. We cannot get too confident that that is the end.”

BYisrael said her division is ready for any possible upsurge in covid19 infections following activities over the Carnival weekend.

Although Tobago did not host any major celebrations owing to the pandemic, the Division of Tourism, Culture, Antiquities and Transportation still gave visitors snapshots of the island’s cultural heritage through several small events in and around Scarborough.

The division’s activities culminated in Scarborough on Tuesday with mini parade featuring traditional Carnival characters.

Saying she viewed some of the footage of people participating in the activities, BYisrael said her division is prepared to deal with a spike in new infections.

She told Newsday, “On my end, we are working on ensuring that the systems are in place just in case there are a bunch of new infections particularly since we are having a taste of Carnival.

“From some of the images I am seeing, which means if there are infected people in those situations, we would have higher rates of infections in the next couple weeks.”

BYisrael added, “The Division of Health, Wellness and Social Protection in collaboration with the Tobago Regional Health Authority is ensuring that we prepare for that, just in case it happens. We have testing facilities. We are finalising the functions at the Fort (King George) to ensure that we have ICU care up there and we are preparing for those.

Hopefully, we don’t need it but just in case it happens, we will be ready.”