Kalain Ho­sein

In the high­est week­ly jump in COVID-19 cas­es since Oc­to­ber 4, 2022, the Min­istry of Health re­port­ed 559 new COVID-19 cas­es on Tues­day. These new cas­es were record­ed be­tween Feb­ru­ary 22 and 28. The sev­en-day rolling av­er­age of COVID-19 cas­es, mean­ing the num­ber of new COVID-19 cas­es record­ed dai­ly dur­ing the sev­en days, al­so rose to 80 cas­es a day, on av­er­age, mark­ing a high since Oc­to­ber 2022 and the high­est for 2023 to date.

The Min­istry of Health al­so re­port­ed eight new COVID-19 fa­tal­i­ties, mark­ing the fourth-high­est week­ly jump for the year, in­clud­ing one per­son with­out un­der­ly­ing health con­di­tions. The de­ceased in­clud­ed six el­der­ly males, one el­der­ly fe­male, and one mid­dle-aged fe­male. Year-to-date, of the 58 COVID-19-re­lat­ed deaths, 52 were not ful­ly vac­ci­nat­ed.

Hos­pi­tal­i­sa­tions are al­so at the third high­est lev­el for the year, with 53 peo­ple ward­ed in hos­pi­tal, just be­hind the post-Christ­mas spike where 74 pa­tients were ward­ed in the pub­lic health­care sys­tem on Jan­u­ary 21, 2023. Ac­cord­ing to the Min­istry of Health, 48 pa­tients are ward­ed in the par­al­lel health­care sys­tem, which in­cludes the Cou­va Hos­pi­tal and Mul­ti-train­ing Fa­cil­i­ty, the Cau­ra Hos­pi­tal, Ari­ma Gen­er­al Hos­pi­tal, and the Scar­bor­ough Re­gion­al Hos­pi­tal. With­in the Cou­va Hos­pi­tal and Mul­ti-Train­ing Fa­cil­i­ty, one pa­tient is in the In­ten­sive Care Unit, and three are in the High De­pen­den­cy Unit.

Five pa­tients are al­so ward­ed with­in what the Health Min­istry calls the “Hy­brid Sys­tem.” These fa­cil­i­ties in­clude the Port-of-Spain Gen­er­al Hos­pi­tal and San Fer­nan­do Gen­er­al Hos­pi­tal, which are now equipped to treat and ward COVID-19 pa­tients with­out trans­fer to the par­al­lel health­care sys­tem.

There are now 348 COVID-19-pos­i­tive pa­tients that are be­ing mon­i­tored by the Min­istry of Health in home self-iso­la­tion, a marked in­crease from the pri­or week when there were on­ly two pa­tients in home self-iso­la­tion be­ing mon­i­tored by the Min­istry. In ad­di­tion, 20 pa­tients have been dis­charged from pub­lic health fa­cil­i­ties, while 385 peo­ple who were in home self-iso­la­tion have re­cov­ered from the dis­ease in the last week. There are no pa­tients in step-down fa­cil­i­ties across Trinidad and To­ba­go.

Dur­ing the Car­ni­val pe­ri­od, vac­ci­na­tions re­mained low for both new in­oc­u­la­tions and boost­er dos­es. Over the last sev­en days, 261 dos­es of a COVID-19 vac­cine were ad­min­is­tered, with 111 peo­ple re­ceiv­ing a COVID-19 boost­er.