Eight more peo­ple have test­ed pos­i­tive for COVID-19, ac­cord­ing to the lat­est COVID-19 up­date from the Min­istry of Health.

How­ev­er, it em­pha­sis­es that the eight new cas­es are the re­sults of sam­ples tak­en dur­ing the pe­ri­od Au­gust 22nd to Au­gust 29th, 2020.

In its 6 pm up­date, to­day, the Min­istry re­ports that these lat­est cas­es bring the na­tion­al toll of ac­tive cas­es to 998.

Oth­er high­lights from the Min­istry's up­date in­clude:

- The na­tion­al COVID-19 death toll holds steady at 21, as no new deaths were record­ed since this morn­ing.

- To­tal num­ber of COVID-19 sam­ples that have test­ed pos­i­tive since test­ing be­gan is 1,691.

The fol­low­ing is the com­plete clin­i­cal up­date from the Min­istry...

TRINIDAD AND TO­BA­GO COVID-19 (NOV­EL CORO­N­AVIRUS) UP­DATE #429

Port-of-Spain, Au­gust 30th 2020: As part of the na­tion­al dri­ve to safe­guard the health of the Trinidad and To­ba­go pop­u­la­tion in the face of the glob­al COVID-19 out­break, the Min­istry of Health con­tin­ues to pro­vide up-to-date in­for­ma­tion on the coun­try’s sta­tus in this re­gard.

The pop­u­la­tion is re­mind­ed to source your in­for­ma­tion on­ly from of­fi­cial sources, such as the Min­istry of Health.

As of the af­ter­noon of Sun­day, 30th Au­gust, 2020 the Min­istry re­ports the fol­low­ing:

• Num­ber of sam­ples sub­mit­ted to the Caribbean Pub­lic Health Agency (CARPHA), the UWI and oth­er lo­cal sites for test­ing for COVID-19 = 23,530

• Num­ber of sam­ples which have test­ed pos­i­tive at pub­lic and pri­vate fa­cil­i­ties in Trinidad and To­ba­go = 1691

• To­tal num­ber of ac­tive cas­es = 998

• Num­ber of deaths = 21

• Num­ber of per­sons dis­charged = 672

The eight (8) pos­i­tive cas­es re­port­ed be­low show re­sults from sam­ples tak­en dur­ing the pe­ri­od Au­gust 22nd to Au­gust 29th, 2020. There­fore, this fig­ure is NOT rep­re­sen­ta­tive of the pos­i­tive cas­es over the last 24 hours on­ly.

The Min­istry of Health pro­vides the fol­low­ing up­date:

• Eight (8) ad­di­tion­al per­sons have test­ed pos­i­tive for COVID -19.

All es­tab­lished pro­to­cols have been im­ple­ment­ed.

In­ten­sive Care Units (ICUs) are hos­pi­tal wards that pro­vide treat­ment for peo­ple who are very ill. They are staffed with health care pro­fes­sion­als who are trained in ICU treat­ment and the use of so­phis­ti­cat­ed mon­i­tor­ing equip­ment.

High De­pen­den­cy Units (HDUs) are wards for peo­ple who need more ob­ser­va­tion, treat­ment and nurs­ing care than is pos­si­ble in a gen­er­al ward but slight­ly less than that giv­en in an In­ten­sive Care Unit.

An Am­bu­la­to­ry Pa­tient is able to walk about and is not bedrid­den.

If you or a loved one de­vel­ops symp­toms of COVID-19, please call the hot­line 877-WELL or 800-WELL (9355) for fur­ther guid­ance.

If the per­son is se­vere­ly ill, call the 811 (emer­gency hot­line) or call ahead to the Ac­ci­dent and Emer­gency De­part­ment of your near­est hos­pi­tal for help and go in im­me­di­ate­ly.

The Gov­ern­ment of Trinidad and To­ba­go will con­tin­ue to up­date the pub­lic via its of­fi­cial com­mu­ni­ca­tion chan­nels such as:

• The Min­istry of Health’s web­site (health.gov.tt);

• The Min­istry of Com­mu­ni­ca­tions web­sites (moc.gov.tt and news.gov.tt); and

• The rel­e­vant so­cial me­dia pages of these en­ti­ties (Face­book, Twit­ter and In­sta­gram).

Please note:

Mem­bers of the pub­lic are re­mind­ed that they must ad­here to the ‘New Nor­mal’ rec­om­men­da­tions and take the fol­low­ing per­son­al health mea­sures to pro­tect them­selves and their loved ones from COVID-19:

• Wear a mask over your nose and mouth when you go out in pub­lic

• Keep your dis­tance from oth­ers (6 feet)

• Stay home if you are ill

• Clean then sani­tise sur­faces (e.g. table­tops, door knobs and cell phones)

• Wash your hands of­ten with soap and wa­ters or use an al­co­hol-based hand sani­tis­er

• Cough in­to a tis­sue or in­to the cook of your el­bow

• Avoid touch­ing your face