By Sue-Ann Wayow
The Ministry of Health has been capturing and recording all Covid-19 related deaths in and out of public hospitals.
This is according to Chief Medical Officer Dr Roshan Parasram who again clarified the issue of Covid-19 related deaths on Wednesday.
He was speaking at the Ministry of Health’s virtual media conference.
In response to the query raised by the trade unions concerning the number of Covid-19 related deaths, Dr Parasram said once a person tested positive for Covid-19 at the point of death, the individual’s death would be recorded as Covid related.
He said, “There are two main categories. There are persons who will die with Covid and there are persons who will die of Covid, meaning of the complications of Covid so we have two broad categories.”
Dr Parasram explained, “ Persons who would have died in hospital would be given a death certificate from the clinicians in the hospital. Persons who would have died at home, having known their status prior to death would be classified by a district medical officer or the attending physician and then that data would come upstream in the Ministry of Health.”
He added, “ As it relates to the unknown deaths, for example somebody collapses at their home, they would not have been swabbed at all, they would not know their status, when they are brought into the institutions, they are swabbed at that point and we count those persons as having a positive swab at the time of death.”
The CMO said the ministry tried not to miss anyone who would have died a Covid-19 related death in Trinidad and Tobago. He said through the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service and the district medical officers, the ministry was able to record all deaths in and out of the hospitals.
