Camille McEachnie
The Tobago Regional Health Authority's (TRHA) Medical Chief of Staff (MCOS) Dr Victor Wheeler says the authority will "soon" begin testing everyone for COVID-19 before they are warded at the Scarborough General Hospital at Signal Hill.
Dr Wheeler made the announcement yesterday at the virtual Tobago Health Media Briefing in response to a question on the hospital's testing policy related to admitting patients.
On July 8, TRHA said it had investigated a "cluster" of infections at the hospital and discovered that a patient admitted to the hospital's male medical ward was COVID-positive.
Back then, COVID-19 Response Team Member Dr Anthony Thompson said the "cluster" of infections included three deaths and 38 infections-11 patients and 27 hospital staff members.
Yesterday, he updated the figure, saying an additional person died and four more staff were infected.
Speaking on the issue, the hospital's MCOS - Dr Wheeler, said it is not part of this country's medical guidelines to test all patients before they are warded. However, the TRHA will soon begin routine testing.
"We (TRHA) are in the process of expanding Antigen testing, which is a rapid test..so that in the near future we will have the capacity to test every patient who is admitted to the hospital," Wheeler said.
He said the TRHA is awaiting validation of its Antigen testing. When that occurs, all patients entering the hospital to stay will be tested.
He cautioned that it's not a foolproof way to prevent COVID-positive patients from being warded at the hospital.
"Bear in mind, you can have someone who is asymptomatic and test negative but may become symptomatic and test positive."
He said if the patients who develop COVID are housed at the Scarborough Hospital at Fort King George or Intensive Care Unit at the Signal Hill hospital.
Meanwhile, the health care officials were asked why the hospital's entire staff was not tested for COVID to prevent the"cluster" of infections from spreading.
"The approach has been to initially test all those people who were directly related to where the cluster was believed to have started," Dr Thompson said.
Adding: "As you spread the net you test more and more people and get fewer and fewer cases, but that has not precluded the ongoing surveillance testing."
He said surveillance testing in all sections of the hospital continues.
TRHA's authorities also said there is "sufficient" Personal Protection Equipment at the hospital for staff.
They also said all COVID-19 protocols are followed to prevent the further spread of the disease.
According to the THRA, as of yesterday, 10,629 people are vaccinated in Tobago,8158 of which are fully vaccinated.
Of those, 833 are from the medical profession.
