By Sue-Ann Wayow
THE Covid-19 Delta cases being reported in Trinidad and Tobago are now not linked to travel which is cause for greater concern by health officials.
Chief Medical Officer Dr Roshan Parasram said on Monday, “The implications of being able to find it in random samples means that more than likely Delta is established in the community for a few weeks well and that is the concern and that is why we are asking everyone to come forward and have their vaccines as quickly as they can, those who would not have had it as yet.”
Dr Parasram gave further details about the three more cases of the Delta variant of concern reported by the Ministry of Health on Sunday, at the ministry’s virtual press conference on Monday.
He said, “The first case as we said in the press release is a non-national who recently travelled to the country from Venezuela. That person is of course being treated as an imported case.
“The other two cases at least overtly, the epidemiological investigation has begun. Overtly meaning in the first instance it is not apparent that there is any link to travel… They have no links to travel in the primary contacts that we have interviewed so far, one is in St George West and one is in county St George East.”
He said the county medical officers of health in those jurisdictions were continuing the investigations looking for possible travel links and isolating all the contacts found using the recommended discharge criteria which was two negative tests at least 24 hours apart to ensure the spread does not go beyond those cases.
About a month ago, testing for the variant was expanded given the increasing cases globally, the CMO said, and the Trinidad Public Health Lab have been testing for cycle threshold (CT) value when the PCR test was conducted. CTs of 19 and less were sent onwards for sequencing.
“The two other individuals fell into those categories and that was how we were able to pick them up as Delta variants,” he said.
Dr Parasram said they would have been treated as positive Covid-19 cases about a week and a half ago so normal protocols would have been followed but the primary contacts would have been expanded.
He said, the attempt would be to ensure that the spread did not extend out of the geographical areas if possible.
Research has shown the Delta variant is more easily spread from person to person as compared to previous variants. Additionally, evidence indicates that individuals who have contracted this variant may be prone to an increased risk of severe illness and hospitalisation. This variant may also lead to an increase in cases of Covid-19 in younger age groups and in those who have been previously infected.
And Dr Parasram added that each of the four types of the Covid-19 vaccines available to the Trinidad and Tobago population had the capacity to protect against the Delta variant.
