By Chantalé Fletcher
OVER the last nine days, there has been a plateau in the overall Covid-19 hospital occupancy between 53% to 55 %.
This according to Principal Medical Officer of Institutions Dr Maryam Abdool-Richards at the Ministry of Health virtual presser on Wednesday.
She said, “This was the first we have noticed a plateau in overall occupancy since the onset of increased hospitalisation on October 19 which was over 106 days.”
In addition, over the past 42 days, there has been a slow decline in the number of patients being treated in the accident and emergency departments.
Dr Abdool-Richards said, “This morning across the ten A&Es, we have 36 patients of which five require Intensive Care Unit (ICU) level care.”
She said that the ICU occupancy continued to be high on Wednesday as 57 out of 80 or 73 % of available beds were filled.
Dr Abdool-Richards said the Arima General Hospital, Augustus Long Hospital and the Couva Hospital and Multi-Training Facility continue to have high occupancies, all in excess of 85%.
She said, “This meant that persons who contract Covid-19 and require hospitalisation are often in a severe or critical medical condition which increases their risk of being admitted into the ICU and gives them less of a chance of recovery.”
Dr Abdool-Richards said currently 85% of patients in the parallel healthcare system were not fully vaccinated. This, she said, has been a consistent trend over the last seven months.
Once again, she pleaded on behalf of every frontline worker for people to get vaccinated.
Dr Abdool-Richards said there was hope as early treatment for Covid-19, as opposed to a reliance on therapies that were not World Health Organization (WHO) approved, has proven to give persons a better chance if admitted to hospital.
She said vaccination continued to be a safe, effective and proven measure to reduce the risk of being hospitalised and requiring ICU care if one contracted the virus.
Dr Abdool-Richards said, “Vaccination is proven to reduce the transmissibility of Covid-19 especially to relatives and friends who may have high-risk factors or cannot be immunized at this point.”
