It has been 25 days since Tobago last recorded a COVID-19 positive case.
Attributing this feat to aggressive planning and preparations, Tobago House of Assembly Health Secretary Tracy Davidson-Celestine said while this meant there was no active COVID case currently on the island, it did not mean they were COVID free.
Joining the Prime Minister and Health Minister along with her team at the Scarborough Library Facility for Saturday’s briefing, Davidson-Celestine cautioned, “It means that no new case has emerged for testing.”
Commending health care providers for pulling out all the stops as well as the public for adhering to the regulations, she urged people to continue coming forward for testing if they are displaying symptoms.
She warned, “Not having a tested positive case is not a licence to flout our regulations.” Confirming that health inspectors continued to conduct inspections and carry out checks, she said they could not falter in the fight to get this virus under control.
Turning her attention to fellow Tobagonians who had lost jobs or suffered reduced incomes, the Health Secretary urged them to regroup and take advantage of the opportunities available to them via the State.
She said, “If we are to restart the process of moving the economy forward, our lives will be able to move forward as well.”
Dr Roxanne Mitchell claimed the non-presentation of a COVID-case in the last 25 days on the island was as a result of concentrated and aggressive primary and secondary contact tracing efforts, along with rapid containment measures, and enforcement by the police.
She said it was important that people not become complacent in their efforts to ensure the virus does not spread.
Parasram:Authorities carefully monitoring epidemiological trends
Providing the clinical update Chief Medical Officer Dr Roshan Parasram said the authorities were carefully monitoring epidemiological trends over the last two weeks.
“We are seeing a slight increase in the upward direction over the last two weeks so it has become a little more acute over the last week or so…notably so…with a daily average of 37 and it is a cause for concern.”
He said they could not ignore increases, as small as they might be, as this could balloon into something more significant quickly as evidenced by what was happening in others parts of the world.
Parasram reiterated that COVID-19 was unrelenting and unforgiving, but he too urged people to continue adhering to public health regulations as he said cluster cases were being found in homes and workplaces where people felt secure and comfortable to remove masks and interact as usual.
With 589 active cases in the country, he said the hospital occupancy rate was just around 13 per cent. Meanwhile, 63 new cases were recorded on Saturday.