Rishard Khan
rishard.khan@guardian.co.tt
The country’s COVID-19 death toll now stands at 70 after three people succumbed to the virus yesterday, the Ministry of Health confirmed.
The latest fatalities were two elderly males with comorbidities and one female from Tobago who the ministry said had “pre-existing conditions.”
The deaths meant that 62 people have died in the second phase of the infection which began on July 20; 40 of which occurred in September.
The total number of people to contract the virus locally since the first case was recorded on March 12 also went up to 4,277 after 42 new cases were recorded from the 369 samples submitted within the last 24 hours.
Despite the new cases, the number of active cases dropped to 2,085 after 65 patients were released from the ministry’s care; seven were discharged from hospital while 68 were released from home isolation and are listed as “recovered community cases.”
Recovered community cases refer to persons who were previously COVID-19 positive and in self-isolation at home and subsequently met the discharge criteria and were released from self-isolation. The releases make 2,122 people to have recovered from the virus locally.
As of the Ministry’s 10 am update, there were 96 COVID-19 patients at hospital. There were 10 at St Ann’s, one at Augustus Long, five at Arima, 22 at Caura and 58 at Couva. Of those receiving treatment at the Couva Hospital, six were warded in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) and seven in the High Dependency Unit (HDU).
There were also 103 COVID-19 positive patients in Step-down/Transition Facilities. There were 52 at the UWI’s Canada Hall, 45 at the UWI’s Freedom Hall, and six at the UWI’s Debe campus.