By Chantalé Fletcher
PRINICIPAL Medical Officer of Institutions Dr Maryam Abdool-Richards says there continues to be a narrowing of the gap between admissions and discharges.
Speaking at the Ministry of Health virtual conference on Monday, she described it as positive sign, “As it demonstrates an existing capacity in in the parallel health care system as of today to manage additional patients.”
Dr Abdool-Richards stated as at Saturday, 67 persons were admitted in the previous week in the net admissions.
“Thus far, with two days into this epidemiological week, we have an additional 19 persons being admitted into the parallel health care system.”
The PMO gave a breakdown of the number of Covid-19 patients from May 15 (when the State of Emergency was implemented) to present.
She said there was a plateauing of patients in the system since July 15, however, the number of hospitalise patients exceeds the numbers of persons who were recovering in step down facilities.
The PMO said, “As of this morning, there 350 persons hospitalised across the 16 facilities in the parallel health care system.”
Dr Abdool-Richards added there was also a five-to-one ratio of critically and severely ill patients to those recovering.
Meanwhile Geographic Information Systems Manager at the Ministry of Health Roshan Seeramsingh said St George East County continued to record an increase in Covid-19 cases.
He compared epidemiological weeks 36 to 37 (September 5 to 18) with 37 to 38 (September 12 to 25) which showed a fluctuation at the community level.
Seeramsingh said, “Some communities continue to record a high number of cases while others remain generally low, however there are fluctuations taking place. Fluctuation at the community level was building up and when aggravated it continued into the County level as well.”
He added, “County Victoria continues to record the highest number of cases followed by County Caroni and St George East. However, while there have been fluctuations in all Counties during week 35 to 28, St George Eat was the only county that has continuously recorded an increase over the that period.”
Seeramsingh also stated that Counties Nariva and Mayaro have recorded no increases but added that there were increases and decreases in other counties in scattered and populated areas.
In referring to epidemiological weeks 35 to 38, he said, “Populated areas in County Victoria continue to record increases, while in County Caroni remained specific areas which continue to record increases and decreases over the period of time.”
In addition, Seeramsingh said, “St George East followed County Caroni in a similar pattern to with scattered increases and decreases across the county but with most areas showing no identifiable patterns.”
At this time, there were no confirmation on whether the Delta variant was the cause of the increase Covid-19 cases in St George East.
