It's not going to be an easy road ahead if what the Ministry of Health has said regarding critical hospital spaces is realised.
The warning given Saturday was that those who find themselves needing COVID-19 treatment within the Intensive Care and High Dependency Units of the hospitals, can soon face higher probabilities of death if they are found among those being turned away due to lack of beds.
Health Minister Terrance Deyalsingh made it clear, "We are reaching a very dangerous juncture in our fight against COVID-19. The danger that we are facing is what Dr Richards and Dr Trotman started to talk to the country about over a month ago. Dr Trotman, over a month ago, spoke to the fact that our ICU/HDU capacity is limited and that if patients present needing that advanced level of care, they may have to triage patients...it means the doctors will have to determine - if you have 10 persons who need ICU or HDU care and you only have five of those beds available, which five will get it."
This is no easy decision for someone under the Hippocratic Oath but the warnings have been persistent and consistent. The warnings, it seems, have been taken for granted by many.
With active cases on the rise, the latest Ministry of Health data shows that 94.2 per cent of those hospitalised are not fully vaccinated.
Of the 4,437 people admitted to treatment facilities between July 22 and October 6, 4,178 were not fully vaccinated.
The Minister has warned that the situation will be exacerbated by the low vaccine uptake by the population, which has "plummeted dangerously" by 55 per cent over the past week from an average of 2,939 first doses administered per day to an average of only 1,614 doses per day.
The reopening today of schools for Forms 4 to 6 regardless of vaccination status, simply means the opportunities for the virus to spread are higher than it was yesterday, despite the best efforts of the education stakeholders to minimise this.
One thing that remains constant, however, is the availability of vaccines that drastically reduce the severity of the infection and the requirement for ICU or HDU treatment.
According to Principal Medical Officer of Institutions Dr Maryam Abdool-Richards, the clinical evidence shows that vaccinated people who acquire even the Delta variant, have mild or asymptomatic symptoms and recover.
In a battle that has always been one of life and death, pointing to the few fully vaccinated cases that have also contracted or even died from the virus as a reason not to take the virus, is nothing short of absurd logic.
No vaccine provides 100 per cent efficacy but all provide a much greater chance of survival than facing COVID-19 with no defence at all.
It is in light of the dangerous place that we are now approaching, as outlined by the Health authorities on Saturday, that we find it necessary to once again use this space to repeat the simple call we've been making for months, "Get Vaccinated!"
Attempting to discredit the evidence is not worth dying for.