November 13, 2021

While ICU Beds Are Running Out, Health Officials Lament A Stall In T&T’s Vaccination Efforts

By Newsroom

From July 15th-November 9th, Trinidad and Tobago maintained a hospital occupancy of 40% in the parallel healthcare system. Over the past week, that figure has now climbed to 48%.

At Saturday’s Covid-19 media conference, Principal Medical Officer Dr. Maryam Abdool-Richards warned of a “grim reality” regarding the rise in patients being hospitalized for Covid-19.

The net hospital admissions over the past week was 91, compared to last week’s 56, she revealed with concern.

In the ICU in Trinidad, 53 of the 61 available beds are filled. 49 of those patients are unvaccinated.

Three children are receiving ICU-level care out of a total of five children who are hospitalized.

With the statistics showing majority of hospitalizations are unvaccinated nationals, Dr. Abdool-Richards renewed a call for people to take advantage of the offer of vaccination. 

“We are at a point where we may run out of resources to save lives,” she saod 

Meanwhile, Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh has expressed that T&T’s vaccination drive has “more or less stalled”.

“Over the past two weeks, we have been averaging about 1,200 cases per day. Our current statistics are, 631,871 persons first dose, completed vaccination (two-dose regime or Johnson and Johnson one-shot regime) 626,652. And we started the additional primary dose this week on Wednesday; to date we have done 3,262,” the Health Minister said. 

 

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