By Chantalé Fletcher
PRINICPAL Medical Officer of Institutions Dr Maryam Abdool-Richards says there are only three beds left in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) for Covid-19 patients in Trinidad and Tobago.
Speaking at the Ministry of Health’s virtual media conference on Saturday, she said, “In Trinidad, 51 out of 54 beds are occupied which is 94% occupancy, so three beds are left and out those 51 patients, 48 were not fully vaccinated which means 94% of persons in the ICU this morning are not fully vaccinated.”
In addition, Dr Abdool-Richards said, there were 52 operationalised beds where two beds were added over the last 48 hours at the Point Fortin Hospital.
She said from July 15 overall occupancy started to plateau at 40% but by September 29, the number of persons across the nine hospitals crossed 300.
Dr Abdool-Richards said people continued to come to the accident and emergency department in a severe and critical condition.
She said, “We have been observing over the last two weeks, persons were presenting in a status that requires immediate ICU care. As they call the GMRTT ambulance and arrive at the A&E, we have start giving them oxygen, ventilator support and ICU level treatment.
“As of this morning, there were 19 patients across our traditional A&E Centres who require immediate transfers to the hospitals in the parallel healthcare system, while seven of those 19 patients require ICU level support and care.”
She said all 19 of these patients requiring hospital care were not fully vaccinated.
“Seven out of seven ICU patients have not been fully vaccinated,” the PMO said.
Dr Abdool-Richards said, “We have noticed over the past 12 days that the average percentage of patients who require ICU care on a daily basis has been between five to seven patients.
“This morning, two of the seven patients were too unstable to transfer at this point.”
She said, “The Ministry of Health is doing all in their path to increase the capacity of hospitals in the parallel healthcare system to manage the ICU level unit cases and we are trying our best in the A&E department to provide the staffing and the equipment to support those critically ill patients.”
“However, sometimes, the patients are too ill to be moved and this affects their prognosis when they arrive in ICU unit,” Dr Abdool-Richards said.
