The Min­istry of Health has an­nounced five new COVID-19 cas­es.

The an­nounce­ment was made in the 10 am COVID up­date Fri­day morn­ing.

● Five (5) ad­di­tion­al per­sons have test­ed pos­i­tive for COVID-19. 

   –  Three (3) are pri­ma­ry con­tacts of a re­cent­ly pos­i­tive COVID-19 pa­tient.

   –   Two (2) are pend­ing epi­demi­o­log­i­cal in­ves­ti­ga­tion.

This fol­lows 8 new cas­es an­nounced on Thurs­day.

These lat­est COVID-19 pos­i­tive cas­es brings the of­fi­cial to­tal num­ber of in­fect­ed per­sons to 169, since the out­break be­gan ear­li­er this year.

The fol­low­ing is the com­plete clin­i­cal up­date from the Min­istry...

TRINIDAD AND TO­BA­GO COVID-19 (NOV­EL CORO­N­AVIRUS) UP­DATE #368

As part of the na­tion­al dri­ve to safe­guard the health of the Trinidad and To­ba­go pop­u­la­tion in the face of the glob­al COVID-19 out­break, the Min­istry of Health con­tin­ues to pro­vide up-to-date in­for­ma­tion on the coun­try’s sta­tus in this re­gard.

The Min­istry of Health pro­vides the fol­low­ing clin­i­cal up­date as of the morn­ing of Fri­day 31st Ju­ly 2020:

7,716  =  Num­ber of sam­ples sub­mit­ted to the Caribbean Pub­lic Health Agency (CARPHA) for test­ing for COVID-19

6,145  =  Num­ber of unique pa­tient tests com­plet­ed

1,571  =  Num­ber of re­peat­ed tests

169  =  Num­ber of sam­ples which have test­ed pos­i­tive

8  =  Num­ber of deaths

132  =  Num­ber of per­sons dis­charged

The Min­istry of Health pro­vides the fol­low­ing up­date:

●  Five (5) ad­di­tion­al per­sons have test­ed pos­i­tive for COVID-19.

    –  Three (3) are pri­ma­ry con­tacts of a re­cent­ly pos­i­tive COVID-19 pa­tient.

    –  Two (2) are pend­ing epi­demi­o­log­i­cal in­ves­ti­ga­tion.

All es­tab­lished pro­to­cols have been im­ple­ment­ed.

●  Two (2) per­sons have been dis­charged from the Cau­ra Hos­pi­tal.

COVID-19 Pos­i­tive Pa­tients in Hos­pi­tal – (24). Five (5) new pa­tients are en route to hos­pi­tal.

    –  Cau­ra Hos­pi­tal  =  23

    –  Cou­va Hos­pi­tal and Mul­ti-Train­ing Fa­cil­i­ty  =  1

COVID-19 Pos­i­tive Pa­tients in Step-down / Tran­si­tion Fa­cil­i­ties – (0)

In­ten­sive Care Units (ICUs) are hos­pi­tal wards that pro­vide treat­ment for peo­ple who are very ill. They are staffed with health care pro­fes­sion­als who are trained in ICU treat­ment and the use of so­phis­ti­cat­ed mon­i­tor­ing equip­ment.

High De­pen­den­cy Units (HDUs) are wards for peo­ple who need more ob­ser­va­tion, treat­ment and nurs­ing care than is pos­si­ble in a gen­er­al ward but slight­ly less than that giv­en in an In­ten­sive Care Unit.

An Am­bu­la­to­ry Pa­tient is able to walk about and is not bedrid­den.

Mem­bers of the pub­lic are re­mind­ed that they must ad­here to the ‘New Nor­mal’ rec­om­men­da­tions and take the fol­low­ing per­son­al health mea­sures to pro­tect them­selves and their loved ones from COVID-19:

●   Wear a mask over your nose and mouth when you go out in pub­lic

●   Keep your dis­tance from oth­ers (6 feet)

●   Stay home if you are ill

●   Clean then sani­tise sur­faces (e.g. table­tops, door knobs and cell phones)

●   Wash your hands of­ten with soap and wa­ters or use an al­co­hol-based hand sani­tis­er

●   Cough in­to a tis­sue or in­to the cook of your el­bow

●   Avoid touch­ing your face

If you or a loved one de­vel­ops symp­toms of COVID-19, please call the hot­line 877-WELL or 800-WELL (9355) for fur­ther guid­ance.

If the per­son is se­vere­ly ill, call the 811 (emer­gency hot­line) or call ahead to the Ac­ci­dent and Emer­gency De­part­ment of your near­est hos­pi­tal for help and go in im­me­di­ate­ly.

The Gov­ern­ment of Trinidad and To­ba­go will con­tin­ue to up­date the pub­lic via its of­fi­cial com­mu­ni­ca­tion chan­nels such as:

●  The Min­istry of Health’s web­site (health.gov.tt);

●  The Min­istry of Com­mu­ni­ca­tions web­sites (moc.gov.tt and news.gov.tt); and

●  The rel­e­vant so­cial me­dia pages of these en­ti­ties (Face­book, Twit­ter and In­sta­gram).