By Chantalé Fletcher
PREPAREATIONS are being made for the possibility of the Delta variant in Tobago.
This according to County Medical Officer of Health for Tobago Dr Tiffany Hoyte who spoke at the Division of Health, Wellness and Family Development virtual presser on Thursday.
She said, “In working to ensure that the tourism sector is ready, prepared and safe for operations, we would have been calculative for the possibility of the Delta variant being present.”
Dr Hoyte said, “All protocols were put in place to ensure safety of staff of the service providers, as well as the safety of persons as visitors and to the establishments, which was built into our standard operating procedures.”
She added that training was given to hoteliers, restauranters, transportation providers and every part of the tourism value chain with respect to Covid-19 protocols specific for each sector.
“To ensure safety of staff, clients and visitors who will partake in the services.”
In addition, she indicated that for next Thursday’s presser, Geographic Information System (GIS) maps would illustrate the locations of the new Covid-19 cases.
Dr Hoyte said, “The majority of cases were predominately on the south west side of the island due to a greater population density.
“Every new case, contact tracing was done to identify primary and secondary contacts, and testing all primary contacts which was completed as a standard across the board.
Meanwhile Acting Medical Chief of Staff of the Scarborough General Hospital Dr Victor Wheeler urged person to get vaccinated and follow the health guidelines in order to prevent serious illness and hospitalisation.
Dr Wheeler said the parallel system was able to adequately manage patients though the hospital occupancy remained low.
However, he said, “With the presence of Delta coming in, we expect that the occupancy number to increase, so the most important way to avoid the increase was for persons to get vaccinated.”
