By Sue-Ann Wayow
NINETY-SIX per cent of 1,437 people who died from Covid-19 in T&T were not fully vaccinated.
Since the Ministry of Health started recording whether people who died from Covid-19 were vaccinated, 56 were found to be fully vaccinated.
This information was revealed by epidemiologist Dr Avery Hinds during the Ministry of Health’s Covid-19 update on Monday.
He said some of the fully vaccinated deaths were in people who had pre-existing medical conditions.
Dr Hinds said that 56 patients or 3.8% of the 1,437 died from contracting the virus after a two-week period when the required regimen of the jabs was administered to be considered “fully vaccinated.”
The total number of Covid-19 related deaths as at Sunday was 1,858, the Ministry of Health has reported.
He said, “By data as of Saturday, we had noted and confirmed that among the 1,437 total fatalities that would have occurred since we began to count fatalities among vaccinated versus unvaccinated individuals, what we have noted is that 56 of those which is about 3.8% would have been individuals who had two doses of a vaccine on board more than two weeks after their vaccination regimen would have been completed.”
Dr Hinds added, “So 96% of fatalities that occur continue to be among the unvaccinated. What we also notice when we looked at the data in more detail, you see that most people who have these outcomes in spite of vaccination are individuals that had underlying conditions, usually already diagnosed underlying conditions that would compromise their body’s ability to respond.
“There are sometimes instances where individuals do not know there are underlying conditions and we cannot really account for those cases of unknown underlying condition.”
Dr Hinds did not give the data for the specific type of vaccine the fully vaccinated persons who had passed away would have taken, adding that since one vaccine (Sinopharm) was the majority one used, it would only be natural that the majority of deaths would have been with this vaccine.
He stressed vaccination for the population and called on ill people to accept care as soon as possible since many in need were refusing medical attention.
“When there is need to step up your care, do it as early as possible,” Dr Hinds said.
Covid-19 spreading much faster
Referring to contact tracing, he said the ministry was observing much faster spread of the virus and complete secondary spread to members of households.
He said in the early stages, if an individual was diagnosed and followed the health recommendations in terms of isolation, there was a greater level of success in preventing other members of a household from being infected.
“What we are seeing now is that entire households are being infected very rapidly and there may be an interplay of one of two things. One the Delta variant is much more transmissible and then there may also be a little less stringency in some cases in terms of isolation within the homes,” Dr Hinds said.
He encouraged persons to practice isolation at home as much as possible if someone in the household had Covid-19.
Dr Hinds also said that no specific activity could be blamed for contributing to the rapid increase but added that the general movement of individuals could be a contributing factor.
He said, “The overall mobility that we are currently experiencing because we have had relaxation, has of course contributed to the increase in the probability that an ill individual could come into contact with a susceptible one and pass the illness on.”
