THE Ministry of Health will lose the war against Covid-19 as not enough testing is being done, the health system is now in a crisis and members of the public are still too carefree to follow protocols put in place.
This is according to former Member of Parliament for Tabaquite Dr Surujrattan Rambachan.
On Sunday morning, the Ministry of Health reported that 19,123 samples were tested for Covid-19 by the Caribbean Public Health Agency and the University of the West Indies testing site . It stated that 16,847 people were tested with 2,276 being tested more than once. The ministry noted that there were 784 active Covid-19 cases.
Rambachan wrote on his Facebook page on Sunday stating that “the Covid 19 situation in Trinidad has taken a turn for the worse.”
He said, “Our lackadaisical approach is unfortunate and will be costly in terms of our human development.”
Rambachan said, “The Ministry of Health is not going to win this war. People, their attitudes towards self preservation, their discipline and behaviors are going to have to win this war. Despite the crisis half of the people are not wearing masks in public. I think that we should stop debating whether to make masks mandatory or not and pass legislation by convening the Parliament if that is required.”
The former government minister stated that many cases were being reported after the general election leading the public to believe that testing could have been suppressed by the government pre-election.
He said, “The ramping up of testing has brought to light the severity of the infections. The stark reality of death also faces us. We will never know how many persons were infected prior to elections because very low levels of testing were done.”
Rambachan added that persons who have been tested 10 days ago were still awaiting test results.
And he said there must be an immediate plan to facilitate on line teaching and that children must not be disadvantaged.
Rambachan stated, “After five months of Covid disruptions to schools we have not started a proper conversation and initiated planning to make this shift in which parents will have a key responsibility if it is to be successful. For example, where are the programs on TV or radio conditioning parents to the way they will now have to reorganize the management of their children’s education?”
Whatever educational decisions needed to be made, they should be made now whether schools have to be reconfigured or if computers needed to be provided to children Rambachan stated.
