This country’s health crisis continues to worsen and as the Ministry of Health (MOH) battles the grave situation, fears have increased with medical officials warning yesterday that on the current trajectory in the parallel healthcare system, resources at the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) and the High Dependency Unit (HDU) will be expended within the next 12 days.
Speaking during the ministry’s virtual media briefing, Principal Medical Officer Dr Maryam Abdool-Richards said although they had been staring down this clear and present danger for some time now, trends in the last two weeks indicate more people are presenting in a state that requires immediate ICU care. She said this meant there was an urgent need for oxygen and ventilatory support upon arrival at hospital.
Up to 10 am yesterday, there were 19 patients at traditional A&E centres awaiting transfer to hospitals in the parallel healthcare system—with seven requiring ICU support, of which two were too unstable to transport. All 19 were said to not be fully vaccinated.
In seeking to drive home the severity of the situation the ministry is battling, Abdool-Richards said, “In Trinidad, 51 out of 54 beds are occupied. That is a percentage of basically 94 per cent occupancy, so there were three beds left as of this (yesterday) morning.”
She stressed, “Of those 51 patients, 48 are not fully vaccinated, so 94 per cent of our patients in our ICUs are not fully vaccinated.”
Highlighting these alarming figures, she added, “We are seeing the impact of not being fully vaccinated.”
With ICUs near full occupancy, Abdool-Richards warned, “If we continue on this trend as we have noticed, for the next 12 days, resources will be expended.”
Assuring the nation that the ministry was trying its best to provide care in both the traditional and parallel healthcare systems, the PMO pleaded with citizens to access the vaccines as they are “safe, accessible and available.”
Underscoring just how important vaccines are, Diabetes Association president and director of the T&T Non-Communicable Diseases Alliance (TTNCD), Andrew Dhanoo, said, “Persons living with NCDs and persons with other health conditions have a higher risk of severe COVID-19 disease and are more likely to die from COVID-19.”
Pointing to data by the US Centre for Disease Control (CDC) which claimed unvaccinated persons had an 11-times higher risk of dying from the virus versus the six-times higher risk vaccinated persons were facing, he said the risk, “seems to be much higher in Trinidad.”
Speculating that this was “because of the high prevalence of NCDs” in T&T, Dhanoo said it appeared to be “the driving force here.”
Focusing on vaccine hesitancy trends globally, he said local hesitancy could have been amplified through misinformation and disinformation, complacency, conspiracy theories and a general wait and see approach.
Having launched the vaccine hesitancy hotline 607-VAXX last week as one means of reaching the public and providing accurate information to those needing that extra assurance that vaccination was the right thing to do, Dhanoo said it was being manned by 25 doctors and over 300 volunteers who have fielded more than 100 calls during the past week.
Claiming vaccine hesitancy in T&T seemed to be pervasive throughout, he appealed to the public to listen and heed the advice of medical professionals who were the most trusted sources of information.
He added, “If it is that you are vaccinated, your chances of survival are much higher.”
Lamenting the unfortunate decline in vaccine numbers, Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh said while over 600,000 people had completed their vaccine regime, the daily vaccination rate has continued “crawling to around 1,000 a day.”
Cautioning persons not to become misled by the numbers, he said doctors and nurses are stressed and faced with the inevitability of having to make life and death decisions in the coming days as to who will get resources.
“We are not making any distinction between the vaccinated and the unvaccinated, but what is happing is that the unvaccinated are posing a clear and present danger to the vaccinated,” Deyalsingh said, adding this situation can be avoided if persons come forward and get vaccinated.
He added, “I am again pleading with the unvaccinated to consider being vaccinated as part of now, your civic duty, to make our doctors and nurses not have to make those life and death decisions to allocate scarce resources to you which could have been used elsewhere. We do not want to shut down our outpatient clinics again.”
He said while field hospitals are once again being activated, the ministry is rationalising staff and stocking the hospital at the Jean Pierre Complex with consumables as part of their preparedness strategy, in the event there is overspill from the St James Medical Complex.
Deyalsingh also confirmed that the sale of alcohol would be allowed in bars from tomorrow.
8 more COVID deaths
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Health said yesterday that eight more people had died from the virus, taking the overall toll to 1,682. It said among the victims were one elderly male, three elderly females, two middle-aged males and two middle-aged females. Five of the patients had comorbidities, including diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease and osteoporosis, while three had none.
It also said 290 new cases had been detected from samples taken from October 26-29.