Port Of Spain – Trinidad and Tobago health authorities Wednesday pleaded with nationals to get vaccinated, reiterating earlier concerns that unvaccinated patients were occupying, most, if not all of the beds in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) at hospitals across the country.
Trinidad and Tobago has recorded 1 794 deaths and 59 963 positive cases of the coronavirus (COVID-19) since March last year and the country is now experiencing an increase in the number of critically ill people as it deals with the impact of the Delta Variant of the virus.
Principal Medical Officer – Institutions, Dr Maryam Abdool-Richards, speaking at the Ministry of Health COVID-19 news conference, told reporters that over the past 23 days the number of patients seeking ICU treatment had increased significantly.
She said that of the 52 ICU beds occupied in Trinidad, 46 were claimed by unvaccinated patients or patients who were not fully vaccinated.
“In the intensive care units. This morning there are 52 beds out of a total of 60 beds that are operational and activated in Trinidad. In Tobago two out of five beds are currently occupied.
“We continue to see a significant percentage of unvaccinated or persons who are not fully vaccinated requiring intensive unit level care and this morning out of the 52 persons in Trinidad and Tobago who are in the ICU, 46 of them which is 92 per cent are not fully vaccinated,” she said.
The senior medical official said Trinidad and Tobago had crossed a threshold of hospital occupancy, reaching a high of 427 patients, the highest noted within the past 113 days.
“This morning we have now crossed another threshold. Between June 28 up until yesterday there were less than 400 patients per day in the parallel healthcare system.
“Yesterday that number of 400 was crossed, there were 405 and this morning there are 427 persons in the parallel healthcare facilities. It also means that over the past few days our occupancy and that is our overall occupancy levels which were under 40 percent for 113 days consistently was surpassed.
“This morning we are at 47 per cent overall occupancy and in Trinidad we are at 49 per cent while in Tobago we are at 43 per cent,” Dr Abdool-Richards said, adding that 52 additional patients were awaiting transfer at varying Accident and Emergency (A&E) departments throughout the country, early Wednesday. (CMC)
