THE upsurge in Covid-19 cases in Trinidad and Tobago has caused a significant increase in patients in hospital.
This was revealed by the Principal Medical Officer Institutions in the Ministry of Health Dr Maryam Abdool-Richards at the virtual press conference on Monday.
Dr Richards said the figures were based from the beginning of the year with epidemiology week one and showed the rolling occupancy of the average number of Covid-19 cases per day over a seven-day period.
She said, “At Week 11, we had an overall hospital occupancy level of 2%.
“At the end of week 15 we have seen a significant increase in hospital occupancy levels up to 24 % increase.”
Dr Abdool-Richards said there was also an increase in patients in the intensive care and high dependency units.
She said ICU patients increased from between 2% to 5% to 25 % over a three-week period.
HDU levels increased from 0% to 4 % between weeks one to 11 to currently 10 %, she said.
Dr Abdool-Richards said, “Even more worrying is the trend of the rolling occupancy of the average number of Covid cases per day over a seven-week period.
“This trend resulted in cases at approximately three for weeks one to 11, then at the end of week 14 we saw an increase from three to 32 and as of today (April 19) at the end of week 15, we have seen that number basically doubled to 77 cases per day over the last week.”
Speaking during the questions and answers segment of the presser, Dr Abdool-Richards said the vast majority of patients who passed away from Covid-19 were receiving ICU care and did have comorbidities.
There were now 153 deaths related to Covid-19 in T&T.
Dr Abdool-Richards there were 288 repatriated patients in state and state supervised facilities.
She said 76 T&T citizens recently repatriated via the Galleons Passage from volcano-hit St Vincent and the Grenadines were now in state quarantine facilities.
Dr Abdool-Richards gave an additional update of another flight from Miami on April 21. She Caribbean Airlines there had booking for 128 adults and three infants – 131 returning nationals.
