Health officials are still looking into whether the spike in Covid-19 deaths could be attributed to the presence of the Brazilian P1 variant.

Speaking at Wednesday’s Covid-19 press briefing, Epidemiologist Dr. Avery Hinds said the labs are still processing samples to determine whether there is a link.

T&T reported its highest daily death rate from the virus on Tuesday, with nine new fatalities, taking the death toll for the month of May up to 55.

Overall, 224 people have succumbed to the virus. 

Dr Hinds said as it relates to the testing to determine the possible link with the Brazilian variant, this requires resources. 

“That genomic testing procedure does require resources that need to be on hand for all of that testing to be completed,” he explained. 

However, he said one thing was certain at this point.

“The increased number of deaths is really as an increased number of cases. And although we note that we have implemented several measures of stringency, we also want to remind the population that the most stringent of these is only recently implemented, being less than a week old,” he explained, adding  “All of that has to work its way through the system before the numbers start to come down.”