By Chantalé Fletcher
THERE are 63 patients in the intensive care for Covid-19 in Trinidad.
This according to Principal Medical Officer of Institutions Dr Maryam Abdool-Richards at the Ministry of Health virtual press conference on Wednesday.
She said in Trinidad and Tobago ICU occupancy was 83%.
Abdool-Richards said in Trinidad 63 out of 71 ICU beds were filled with three out of nine beds occupied in Tobago.
She said, “We have the Omicron variant being introduced through travel into our country at this point in time, globally we are seeing the impact of Covid-19 and new variants of concerns on health care and the population.”
The Ministry of Health confirmed the 18th case of the Omicron variant in T&T on Tuesday.
Dr Abdool-Richards added the situation at the hospitals in the parallel healthcare system continued to be very serious.
She said, “There are 96 patients across four regional health authorities who are being treated for Covid-19, and of those, 23 persons are Intensive Care Unit level patients.”
Dr Abdool-Richards said 613 people were in the parallel healthcare system with 480 of them in hospital and 133 in stepdown facilities. This gave an occupancy level of 69%.
She said vaccination continued to be a safe and effective way to reduce the risk of being hospitalised and discouraged the use of medication or therapies that were not approved.
