By Sue-Ann Wayow
THE high number of persons who already contracted Covid-19 and survived have developed some sort of immunity to the virus and could be one of the reasons why fewer persons are being hospitalised.
The presence of the Omicron variant that seems to exhibit fewer symptoms and an increase in Covid-19 vaccination are also contributing factors.
While Chief Medical Officer Dr Roshan Parasram said he could not pinpoint any one reason for the decrease, those were all plausible reasons for the decrease.
He was speaking during the Ministry of Health’s virtual Covid-19 update on Wednesday.
He said, “Knowing what we know about the Omicron variant in terms of severity of disease, certainly it can be a contributing factor. The general state of vaccination in the country is also a contributing factor, the amount of persons affected over the last two years is a contributing factor as well, meaning those who would have gotten some level of immunity based on previous infections.”
Dr Parasram said there was a surge since October into November, December and now into January.
“A large number of the population would have been infected in terms of percentage recently which would give them some level of immunity, together with the Omicron variant becoming dominant so it’s all factors mixed in,” the CMO added.
As at Tuesday, Trinidad and Tobago has recorded 685, 376 persons who were fully vaccinated representing 49% of the population and 528 patients who were hospitalised.
