COVID-19 in Trinidad & Tobago (Local Updates & Discussions Only)

[sMASH]

yes, the exponential increase. geometric progression of the numbers.

increasing the risk and actually spreading it different.

for christmas/ole years u got bumps, for the school term reopening in february u saw a bump, u saw what the general election did. all with in a two weeks of the the events.
the last night of the vigils was the 12th, peopel were spaced out out doors, u saw no real case increase for a whole month. but for every signficant event spanning the country u saw it in the trends, and they were small except for the general election, which was a big event.

inbetween here and there was big wedding and zess, with hundreds of persons climbing all over each other. at the vigils, u didnt have that amount of interaction. pple didnt go to party, it was for a purpose and with covid in mind, people remaind in their little home islands.

teh motorcades, it wasnt every body meet up and one spot and get into any car they coudl fit. it was u want to go, this is the start point, u can drive along.



these were not ur typical mass gathering events in trinidad. people didnt mingle much, relatively spaced out, reasonably masked up.
the numbers were on par with other events like weddings and zessers, which also didnt really show much contribution to the covid case rate.
and the last night of the 9 nights ws the 12th of february, and didnt have any bump till middle march.
we usually see a two week lag in cases, adn that was a month. the increase in cases remained in line with other events.

and nobody so far, know anybody else there, that got covid.

[pugboy]

Exactly,
It certainly would have helped complete geographic spread which is exactly where we reach now.

It's a culmination of all the events - one exponential on the other
Can't blame any one event and not the other
The graph shows the result of everything that caused the escalation

[sMASH]

and i walk tru the wholllle crowds, a couple times, thats thousands of people i was around. and my mask is single sheet polyester the bare minimum to be within the confines in the law, cause the key to covid is proximity and air movement. if any one should get it is me.

[Habit7]

IDK about "february u saw a bump" February had the lowest 7day averages.

It is sad that it had to come to this but there was false political narrative for weeks that 50K went Tobago and they caused the surge. The reality there was a surge in Caroni then Victoria then the EW Corridor all before Easter. The epidemiologist said contact tracing from Caroni were from workplace, place of worship and bar hopping.

But because the claims are taking a political nature for the blame of the current surge, the PM hit back politically. I was saying the vigils were a cause for concern long before the PM. But your graph is very wrong because there were vigil march well into March and cases started to rise in March and then rise exponentially to Easter.

There were about 100 vigils, I doubt you attended all.

[aaron17]

Well dais it day..we ded now

[redmanjp]

you all forget to factor in the brazil variant which is twice as contagious

[sMASH]

it was 9 consecutive days. hundreds to thousand evry night. the nearest case rise was a month after, inline with other bumps.
and this when every other events showed a bump by the 14 day mark. they didnt in a fete manner, and dint gatehr in doors, it was different behaviour from the norm. and the trends showed it

[sMASH]

with hundreds of vigils with thousands of people, u would see the cases rise from the 7 to 14 days subsequent . started on the 4th finished on the 12th. so from the 11th u supposed to be seeing cases rising, at least by 26th, with sooooo many people, u would have seen teh case rate go up.

but again whole february to the middle of march quiet.

if it did contribute, it only did a small part in line with other parts of the trend of cases, nothing out of the norm.

but to say the vigils caused this big spike, nah, u hadda be mad.

50k peopel in the lead up to easter now.. on enclosed boats and planes... bruh.. bruhh...

[Gladiator]

As far as the vigils go, you have a couple hundred, maybe a thousand people gathering, All wearing masks and not conducting activities which require excessive movement, mingling, touching, screaming, laughing, taking off masks to eat or drink etc in police controlled outdoor environment

As far as the Easter limes go, you have at least 25,000 people, lots of Alcohol, music, dancing, lots of talking, frolicking, lots of eats and drinks that require masks to be taken off, sex, beach house gatherings, mass gatherings etc with no police supervision and in an indoor/beach house/guest house environment

But politics trumps commonsense anyday...so yeah whatever Rowley says is right and whatever Kamla says is wrong

[Redress10]

So when and where exactly did these 50000 ppl congregate in Tobago?

[Redress10]

As far as the vigils go, you have a couple hundred, maybe a thousand people gathering, All wearing masks and not conducting activities which require excessive movement, mingling, touching, screaming, laughing, taking off masks to eat or drink etc in police controlled outdoor environment

As far as the Easter limes go, you have at least 25,000 people, lots of Alcohol, music, dancing, lots of talking, frolicking, lots of eats and drinks that require masks to be taken off, sex, beach house gatherings, mass gatherings etc with no police supervision and in an indoor/beach house/guest house environment

But politics trumps commonsense anyday...so yeah whatever Rowley says is right and whatever Kamla says is wrong

The vigils reached 4000+ ppl

[CB Style]

As far as the vigils go, you have a couple hundred, maybe a thousand people gathering, All wearing masks and not conducting activities which require excessive movement, mingling, touching, screaming, laughing, taking off masks to eat or drink etc in police controlled outdoor environment

As far as the Easter limes go, you have at least 25,000 people, lots of Alcohol, music, dancing, lots of talking, frolicking, lots of eats and drinks that require masks to be taken off, sex, beach house gatherings, mass gatherings etc with no police supervision and in an indoor/beach house/guest house environment

But politics trumps commonsense anyday...so yeah whatever Rowley says is right and whatever Kamla says is wrong

The Massa spoke so the sheeples have to listen.

[sMASH]

As far as the vigils go, you have a couple hundred, maybe a thousand people gathering, All wearing masks and not conducting activities which require excessive movement, mingling, touching, screaming, laughing, taking off masks to eat or drink etc in police controlled outdoor environment

As far as the Easter limes go, you have at least 25,000 people, lots of Alcohol, music, dancing, lots of talking, frolicking, lots of eats and drinks that require masks to be taken off, sex, beach house gatherings, mass gatherings etc with no police supervision and in an indoor/beach house/guest house environment

But politics trumps commonsense anyday...so yeah whatever Rowley says is right and whatever Kamla says is wrong

The vigils reached 4000+ ppl

the biggest night was the last night and that had reached 4k. but not in a fete style. they were spaced out, like jesus with the 5 loaves and 2 fishes style. but then its thousands of people amongst 100's of vigils.

with that amount of people for 9 nights straight starting on the 4th,,, with the early covid positive being 7 days, u bong to see numbers show up from the 11th.
last night being the 12th, with the 14 day average woudl be 26th. but the trends only started to show up by the 16th of march. thats over a month later. with no significant change in case rate before.




for that amount of people, u dont have the response in the case rate to show it. so many cases will not all wait till a month later to show up and gradually increase till the runaway.

that gradual increase would have happened earlier, with that amount of people... but, people did not go to fete, they went with their little family units, that they with all the time any ways, and kept in their little bubbles.

there were the numbers, but not the contact between the spaced out groups, andddd was outdoors.

[sMASH]

So when and where exactly did these 50000 ppl congregate in Tobago?

sh!tkicker said it was overflowing, and still invited more people to go. the shiney new boat hadda make back he morney.
the ports, the vessels, being enclosed, with not set of air turnover, and the duration they all in the same place, would have caused a great portion of the exposure.
most covid would have contracted en-route.

[redmanjp]

Which is why I ask why no rapid antigen tests required for inter island travel. All this mess could have been prevented.

[Habit7]

COVID-19 cases rising, warns CMO
By Rishard Khan- March 15, 2021

RISHARD KHAN

There has been a small rise in COVID-19 cases in the country and this has prompted the Chief Medical Officer (CMO), Dr Roshan Parasram, to renew calls for citizens to remain vigilant despite the low numbers, as he blames complacency for the increased numbers.

Speaking during a Ministry of Health virtual press conference on Monday, Dr Parasram noted the increase came within the last week.

“First, we had seven (cases); then we had a spike of 10; and now we have 14 new cases over the last 24 hours,” he said.

“Prior to that, we had been hovering anywhere between a seven-day rolling average of 3 or four for upwards of over a month or more,” the CMO pointed out.

The cases, he indicated, all came from County Caroni, where there were about three major clusters.

“Those clusters would have possibly been involving two families, places of work. We really saw that from one individual being infected—that one person was able to spread it to quite a large number of people in a short space of time,” he said.

This, he said, brings the seven-day rolling average up to seven. This is why he reminded citizens to remain vigilant at all times.

“We are listed in Trinidad and Tobago as community spread. We have not changed that designation for quite a while now. When we look at the classification from WHO (the World Health Organisation) we are at a place where we can be classified as low community spread. This incident or incidents we are seeing in Caroni is reason for us to maintain our vigilance throughout the country.”

“COVID-19 is here. It is in the country. It hasn’t gone away and there has been a little complacency over the last couple of weeks because of the low numbers, in my view,” Dr Parasram said.

This cluster, he said, had the potential to cascade into a more significant outbreak, “in a very short space of time”.

Meanwhile, Minister of Health, Terrence Deyalsingh, dug his heels in to defend his policy that the country would only procure and administer vaccines approved by the WHO.

https://www.cnc3.co.tt/covid-19-cases-r ... s-cmo/?amp

[MaxPower]

Really dont understand why the Govt wastes their time asking Trinis for anything.

Calling upon
Asking of
Pleading
Begging
Reminding

Absolutely hopeless.

[De Dragon]

Fact is obvious to all except Habit7 that Trinidad and Tobago has done POORLY in vaccine acquisition.

Our target of 10% fully vaccinated by the end of August is quite pathetic as many in the Caribbean have already surpassed that, and by August 1st many including Jamaica and Guyana would have reached between 20-30% fully vaccinated.

CleanShot 2021-05-23 at 2.38.22.png
CleanShot 2021-05-23 at 2.38.10.png

[b]It is easy to say TT vaccine acquisition has been poor. Where you will trip up is when you try to point out alternative sources of WHO approved vaccines. Because the entire world knows that there is a shortage of vaccines. [/b]

Jamaica and T&T are in the same position as we have both received the same proportion of vaccines. This month T&T, Belize, Bahamas, Barbados and Guyana all received the same amount of Covax vaccines, Guyana got slightly more. T&T's population dwarfs those countries, Guyana is at least half. Simple maths will obviously show that they will vaccinate a larger portion of their population than us. Smaller Caribbean countries will obviously be further along because the no bigger that the population of Chaguanas.

So unless you know viable source of vaccines that T&T, Jamaica and nearly the majority of countries are not tapping into then you are just being unreasonable. It is just like saying TT is behind in getting nuclear weapons because Israel, USA, UK, Pakistan and Russia get them so easily.

Still pushing your lies and misinformation I see
Yes there is a shortage NOW, but there wasn't when JUHN Scarfy and Single Tear were breaking their arms patting themselves on the back. remember "we beat Covid"? Remember "we eh begging"? Remember pissing off the largest vaccine manufacturer in the world's HC by being a lying jackarse?
What happens when you get cocky and complacent is exactly what is happening to us now, so your belated stating of what is obvious to everyone minus your apologist slant, is that we lapsed very very badly on vaccine acquisition.

[De Dragon]

sigh.....india bro, the one good thing UNC did recently was raise noise about that. We lucky we got 40k from them.

Also, we could have bought Pfizer according to their CEO as well.

From the Indian HC himself, he showed that we were knocking on their door first to buy and ask for donation. Opposition rode the issue which is good politics but it objectively clear that was being pursued even without their input.

The Pfizer CEO is talking rubbish. There have been calls from various sectors and now the US govt to release the intellectual properties rights for the vaccines. This is because of the very reason that not just T&T but many countries in the world have not received bilateral agreements for vaccines like the big rich countries. So obviously all the big pharma companies that have made billions from the vaccines opposed it. They are saying that if we allow generics it will cause a shortage of the individual ingredients. And among the excuses was Albert Bouda claiming that nobody asked them. That is a lie just to cover up their cornering of the market. Now that their chief clients are being satisfied they are trying to act as if they didn't know the rest of the world wanted vital vaccines that just happen to be few and far between.

Don't fall for the rhetoric. So again I ask you, where are we to get vaccines from that we are not trying?

Yes, we believe a proven pathological liar in JUHN Scarfy over the Pfizer CEO, and the Indian HC, the very timeline of which was played out shamefully in public to make us a further laughingstock.
BTW you talking sheit about Pfizer because they and BionTech received NO US federal funding for their development of vaccines, so what you expect them to do? Say hard luck? You feel a vaccine is ah $2 to research, test and produce in the billions?

[Kickstart]

Fact is obvious to all except Habit7 that Trinidad and Tobago has done POORLY in vaccine acquisition.

Our target of 10% fully vaccinated by the end of August is quite pathetic as many in the Caribbean have already surpassed that, and by August 1st many including Jamaica and Guyana would have reached between 20-30% fully vaccinated.

CleanShot 2021-05-23 at 2.38.22.png
CleanShot 2021-05-23 at 2.38.10.png

[b]It is easy to say TT vaccine acquisition has been poor. Where you will trip up is when you try to point out alternative sources of WHO approved vaccines. Because the entire world knows that there is a shortage of vaccines. [/b]

Jamaica and T&T are in the same position as we have both received the same proportion of vaccines. This month T&T, Belize, Bahamas, Barbados and Guyana all received the same amount of Covax vaccines, Guyana got slightly more. T&T's population dwarfs those countries, Guyana is at least half. Simple maths will obviously show that they will vaccinate a larger portion of their population than us. Smaller Caribbean countries will obviously be further along because the no bigger that the population of Chaguanas.

So unless you know viable source of vaccines that T&T, Jamaica and nearly the majority of countries are not tapping into then you are just being unreasonable. It is just like saying TT is behind in getting nuclear weapons because Israel, USA, UK, Pakistan and Russia get them so easily.

Still pushing your lies and misinformation I see
Yes there is a shortage NOW, but there wasn't when JUHN Scarfy and Single Tear were breaking their arms patting themselves on the back. remember "we beat Covid"? Remember "we eh begging"? Remember pissing off the largest vaccine manufacturer in the world's HC by being a lying jackarse?
What happens when you get cocky and complacent is exactly what is happening to us now, so your belated stating of what is obvious to everyone minus your apologist slant, is that we lapsed very very badly on vaccine acquisition.

"we beat Covid" and then his followers all said they did a good Job managing Covid

[Gladiator]

https://www.guardian.co.tt/news/what-ca ... c434c399e4

Kalain Hosein and Rishard Khan

What was the cause of the current surge in COVID-19 cases and deaths?

Until Monday afternoon, the public and epidemiologists alike were on the same page – travel and congregation during Easter.

However, during the State of Emergency debate in Parliament, the Prime Minister liked the current surge in COVID-19 numbers to candlelight and prayer vigils held in early February for murdered court clerk Andrea Bharatt. What does the data show?

Tracking the spikes

Since the start of Phase 2 of COVID-19, Trinidad has experienced several spikes that health officials acknowledged. In 2020, there was the post-2020 General Election increase in cases, connected to the number of rallies and lack of mask-wearing. Cases surged through October, with another spike in November due to a prison COVID-19 outbreak.

The subsequent surge in cases followed Christmas and New Year’s events, where medical officials attributed the surge to house gatherings and parties. These cases were clustered, and numbers declined into February.


The Andrea Bharatt effect

On January 29, news broke about the kidnapping of a court clerk attached to the Arima Magistrates’ Court. The news sent shockwaves across the country, particularly when her body was found off a precipice in the Heights of Aripo on February 6th. Over 100 vigils occurred between February 6th through February 14th, two days after Bharatt’s funeral.

These vigils were populous, but they were held outdoors, and to occur, organizers needed to seek permission from the Commissioner of Police, where COVID-19 protocols had to be followed.

Still, epidemiologists were wary.

On February 13, one day after the funeral, the Technical Director of the Ministry of Health’s Epidemiology Division, Dr Avery Hinds, said, “We are hoping that we don’t see an increase in transmission as a result of these gatherings. Only time will tell.” Dr. Hinds explained he and his team would have looked at the data to see whether there were increasing numbers instead of decreasing numbers in the wake of activities.

February cases

According to the World Health Organisation, the incubation period of COVID-19, meaning the time from exposure to first symptoms, can be anywhere from two to 14 days. With the last highest turnout vigil occurring on February 14th, cases theoretically should have climbed between February 14 through February 28.

Based on the epidemic curve, the seven-day rolling average was at its lowest for 2021 during February, with average daily cases between three and four cases. Some days of February recorded zero cases for the day.


Change in regulations

The Chief Medical Officer, Dr Roshan Parasram, on March 22 cautioned that T&T was on the vert of a significant increase in COVID-19 cases.

At this press conference, the CMO said, “Regardless of what you want to call it, it is a significant increase again, looking upwards of 89 percent in terms of cases week on week. It really needs to be viewed by the public and the Ministry of Health as something of concern now.”

On February 21, the Public Health Regulation (PHO) was updated to include outdoor recreational sports up to 22 athletes. Fourteen days after these regulations went into effect, COVID-19 cases rose at a concerning rate.

According to the CMO, on April 1, a “large number of people coming together in close proximity, no social distance, no wearing of masks, no wearing of shields have been observed,” and he continued to say they noted roughly 14 to 21 days after the new went into effect, cases notably rose. The regulations were changed on March 18th to prohibit recreational sports. However, cases continued to climb.

Easter spread

While the exact figure is debated amongst politicians, it is no question thousands of people travelled not only from Trinidad to Tobago and back but also within both islands, as beaches were open. Though the Prime Minister disagrees, epidemiologist Dr. Avery Hinds described several reasons for the post-Easter spike in cases.

“We’re seeing cases that turn up in contact tracing including workplaces, sometimes places of worship, including indoor settings of bars and bar hopping. We are concerned that the adherence to the mask-wearing, physical distancing and not gathering is not as strong as it was previously.” Importantly, he added, “The other driving factor would have been the large congregations that would have occurred two weeks ago around the Easter period that we’re now seeing the effects of as this week’s figures roll out. We’re seeing that two-week gap between Easter and now being followed by that large surge which we have spoken about before and which we’re now experiencing.”

Tobago spread

Case spikes in Trinidad are typically mirrored in Tobago. There was a post-General Election spike from late August through October, with a second surge in December through January due to Christmas travel. During February, where there were few vigils in remembrance of Andrea Bharatt, cases remained low to near zero through the first half of March. From March 15th onward, cases continue to climb, with a record high of 42 cases reported in the last 24 hours on the island.

[pugboy]

back to regular thread topics

it seems hospital beds did not fill up with the high cases today and yesterday
looking like we might get away this week from full hospitals this week and hopefully peaking this week.

[Country_Bookie]

Driving thru Charlotte Street on Saturday morning after a job, and the street littered predominantly with elderly people just walking, most of them wearing chin straps. I wondering where d hell dem going 8am in the morning.

Ppl are creatures of habit and it's hard to change their established routine. These elderly people are most likely going to buy market stuff on Charlotte street, because Saturday is their usual market day.... along with thousands of other ppl. Market stuff is available everyday so they can go any other day when there's less crowds.... but they just can't change their routine. Same thing happens in marabella market on weekends.

[daring dragoon]

royal castle today in dabadie. heading out now.

[BUG]

royal castle today in dabadie. heading out now.

What?

[Chimera]

one of the groceries is selling prepackaged royal castle meals

[shake d livin wake d dead]

Been around some kinda crazy stories over the last few days...would share in time

[Habit7]

Still pushing your lies and misinformation I see
Yes there is a shortage NOW, but there wasn't when JUHN Scarfy and Single Tear were breaking their arms patting themselves on the back. remember "we beat Covid"? Remember "we eh begging"? Remember pissing off the largest vaccine manufacturer in the world's HC by being a lying jackarse?
What happens when you get cocky and complacent is exactly what is happening to us now, so your belated stating of what is obvious to everyone minus your apologist slant, is that we lapsed very very badly on vaccine acquisition.

"we beat Covid" and then his followers all said they did a good Job managing Covid

Please without the beat up and without the spin.

When did Deyalsingh or Rowley say "we beat Covid"? Because you are asking me to remember and I don't. Please remind us.

[KM_2NR]

Y'all remember when the crooked WHO was praising T&T for its handling of the pandemic. Those were the good ole days. Be safe y'all

[Dizzy28]

one of the groceries is selling prepackaged royal castle meals

Fresh Street Market
https://trinidadexpress.com/features/lo ... 03ac1.html