By Sue-Ann Wayow
DESPITE almost 3,000 Covid-19 related deaths and more than 90,000 positive cases, Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh is pleased with Trinidad and Tobago’s management of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Speaking at the Ministry of Health’s Covid-19 virtual media conference, the last for the year, Deyalsingh compared the country’s performance to other countries as the world progresses into the third year of dealing with the devastating virus.
Referring to vaccination numbers, Deyalsingh said the 600,000 plus persons who were fully vaccinated now had better protection against Covid-19 although that number was still not what the ministry anticipated.
He said, “As a small country with limited resources, I think we have done extremely well. Our first duty was to protect healthcare workers by the provision of PPE (Personal Protection Equipment). T&T is one of the few countries in the world that never ran out of high-quality appropriate PPE.
“Two, we set up the parallel healthcare system. Over 1,000 beds. We will never know how many lives have been saved by the setting up of that parallel healthcare system.”
Deyalsingh said, “Some key supplies were never jeopardised as other countries that ran out of things like oxygen.
“We ensured that key consumables were always present. We never ran out of test kits. We procured vaccines, World Health Organization (WHO) approved vaccines. We started our vaccination programme in February 2021.”
He added that all healthcare workers were always paid on time when many other countries could not do that and borders were managed although the government was heavily criticised for that measure.
The minister said between himself and Chief Medical Officer Dr Roshan Parasram who was also at the conference, everything was done based on available information at the time.
“I think we were spot on but the ingredient that we need now, more than ever is personal responsibility,” Deyalsingh said.
He once again urged the population to avoid large gatherings, observe the three Ws – wear a mask, wash hands and watch your distance – and most importantly to get vaccinated, as there was no determining when the pandemic will end.
