Rishard Khan
rishard.khan@guardian.co.tt
Wednesday's marked the end of the Ministry of Health's weekly scheduled virtual press conference series to address COVID-19 issues.
According to Minister of Health, Terrence Deyalsingh, the decision came in light of favourable circumstances with the country's outbreak.
The circumstances, according to Deyalsingh, are a relatively low seven-day rolling average of 130 new cases, a decreased positivity rate of 21.7 per cent, decreasing hospital occupancy with just 10 patients currently in ICU, and the lowest number of active cases in recent times which is currently at 4,259.
"We feel fairly comfortable that there is no immediate threat to the healthcare system, we have decided that today's press conference in this format will be the last of the series of press conferences we've been having over the past two and a half years," he said.
The minister assured that should any urgent developments present themselves, a physical press conference will be held at the Ministry of Health "as needed when needed."
Although he admitted it was a sombre moment having to say goodbye to the series which lasted almost two and a half years, he said it was a necessary move.
"At the Ministry of Health, we want to move on to dealing with other issues like our blood donation drive, our NCDs, mental health and so on so we need to reprioritise and refocus," he said.
The press conferences were a staple throughout the pandemic for regular updates on the country's response direct from the Ministry of Health and other government officials. It was also a guaranteed opportunity for journalists to pose questions directly to these officials on a frequent basis.
Deyalsinngh thanked the media practitioners for attending the conferences, especially those who were frequent attendees. He also thanked healthcare workers for their efforts during the pandemic.
The ending of the press conferences comes on the heels of the World Health Organisation's Director General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus's claim that the pandemic's "end is in sight." Shortly after this, the United States president, Joe Biden declared it was over.
However, Deyalsingh does not share the sentiment for T&T.
"The pandemic is not over in my view, in the Trinidad and Tobago context," he said.
"A pandemic does not really have a defined end date because what is going to happen with COVID-19...is most likely like influenza, like swine flu which I had, it's going to become endemic. So it may not necessarily be over where you have no COVID anywhere in the world or in Trinidad and Tobago. It is going to be part of our public health landscape," he said.