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

[PariaMan]

If the number continues in the 100s I would expect next month

I long for the day when we will not have a single death from Covid.

Gonna be a while... Year/years

[Mmoney607]

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155/8

Deaths never above 10 anymore. Strange.

[Duane 3NE 2NR]

COVID Update:
• Tests: 294951 (+630)
• Cases: 42582 (+155)
• Active: 5768 (-133)
• Death: 1208 (+8)
• Recovery: 35606 (+280)
• Vaxxed (1st Dose): 467029 (+5501)
• Vaxxed (2nd Dose): 346441 (+7174)
• Mortality Rate: 2.8%
• Population Tested: 21.0%

[hover11]

In other news the government is looking to extend SOE for 3 more months


https://www.cnc3.co.tt/govt-seeks-to-ex ... re-months/

Well that done set as they have the majority

[Duane 3NE 2NR]

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155/8

Deaths never above 10 anymore. Strange.

How is it strange?

The mortality rate went up and is now 2.84%
Globally it is 2%

[Mmoney607]

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155/8

3 children fully vaccinated hmmmm. 2 months ago I saw someone in public life too a picture with their mother and their daughter saying that they all got the vaccine. But now I see the person post yesterday that their daughter got vaccinated with Pfizer. So I hope this is a different daughter because I don't want to believe that this person would allow an under 18 child to get vaccinated when they were no WHO approved vaccines available for children 2 months ago.

[Habit7]

Those Anti-Covid Plastic Barriers Probably Don’t Help and May Make Things Worse
Clear barriers have sprung up at restaurants, nail salons and school classrooms, but most of the time, they do little to stop the spread of the coronavirus.



By Tara Parker-Pope
Aug. 19, 2021, 5:00 a.m. ET

Covid precautions have turned many parts of our world into a giant salad bar, with plastic barriers separating sales clerks from shoppers, dividing customers at nail salons and shielding students from their classmates.

Intuition tells us a plastic shield would be protective against germs. But scientists who study aerosols, air flow and ventilation say that much of the time, the barriers don’t help and probably give people a false sense of security. And sometimes the barriers can make things worse.

Research suggests that in some instances, a barrier protecting a clerk behind a checkout counter may redirect the germs to another worker or customer. Rows of clear plastic shields, like those you might find in a nail salon or classroom, can also impede normal air flow and ventilation.

Under normal conditions in stores, classrooms and offices, exhaled breath particles disperse, carried by air currents and, depending on the ventilation system, are replaced by fresh air roughly every 15 to 30 minutes. But erecting plastic barriers can change air flow in a room, disrupt normal ventilation and create “dead zones,” where viral aerosol particles can build up and become highly concentrated.

“If you have a forest of barriers in a classroom, it’s going to interfere with proper ventilation of that room,” said Linsey Marr, professor of civil and environmental engineering at Virginia Tech and one of the world’s leading experts on viral transmission. “Everybody’s aerosols are going to be trapped and stuck there and building up, and they will end up spreading beyond your own desk.”

There are some situations in which the clear shields might be protective, but it depends on a number of variables. The barriers can stop big droplets ejected during coughs and sneezes from splattering on others, which is why buffets and salad bars often are equipped with transparent sneeze guards above the food.

But Covid-19 spreads largely through unseen aerosol particles. While there isn’t much real-world research on the impact of transparent barriers and the risk of disease, scientists in the United States and Britain have begun to study the issue, and the findings are not reassuring.

A study published in June and led by researchers from Johns Hopkins, for example, showed that desk screens in classrooms were associated with an increased risk of coronavirus infection. In a Massachusetts school district, researchers found that plexiglass dividers with side walls in the main office were impeding air flow. A study looking at schools in Georgia found that desk barriers had little effect on the spread of the coronavirus compared with ventilation improvements and masking.

Before the pandemic, a study published in 2014 found that office cubicle dividers were among the factors that may have contributed to disease transmission during a tuberculosis outbreak in Australia.

British researchers have conducted modeling studies simulating what happens when a person on one side of a barrier — like a customer in a store — exhales particles while speaking or coughing under various ventilation conditions. The screen is more effective when the person coughs, because the larger particles have greater momentum and hit the barrier. But when a person speaks, the screen doesn’t trap the exhaled particles — which just float around it. While the store clerk may avoid an immediate and direct hit, the particles are still in the room, posing a risk to the clerk and others who may inhale the contaminated air.

“We have shown this effect of blocking larger particles, but also that the smaller aerosols travel over the screen and become mixed in the room air within about five minutes,” said Catherine Noakes, professor of environmental engineering for buildings at the University of Leeds in England. “This means if people are interacting for more than a few minutes, they would likely be exposed to the virus regardless of the screen.”

Dr. Noakes said erecting barriers may seem like a good idea but can have unintended consequences. She conducted a study published in 2013 that looked at the effect of partitions between beds in hospitals. The study showed that while some people were protected from germs, the partitions funneled the air in the room toward others.

So while a worker behind a transparent barrier might be spared some of the customer’s germs, a worker nearby or customers in line could still be exposed. Dr. Noakes said most screens she has seen are “poorly positioned and are unlikely to be of much benefit.”

“I think this may be a particular problem in places like classrooms where people are present for longer periods of time,” Dr. Noakes said. “Large numbers of individual screens impede the airflow and create pockets of higher and lower risk that are hard to identify.”

To understand why screens often have little effect on protecting people from aerosol particles, it helps to think about exhaled breath like a plume of cigarette smoke, Dr. Marr said.

“One way to think about plastic barriers is that they are good for blocking things like spitballs but ineffective for things like cigarette smoke,” Dr. Marr said. “The smoke simply drifts around them, so they will give the person on the other side a little more time before being exposed to the smoke. Meanwhile, people on the same side with the smoker will be exposed to more smoke, since the barriers trap it on that side until it has a chance to mix throughout the space.”

Most researchers say the screens most likely help in very specific situations. A bus driver, for instance, shielded from the public by a floor-to-ceiling barrier is probably protected from inhaling much of what passengers are exhaling. A bank cashier behind a wall of glass or a clerk checking in patients in a doctor’s office may be at least partly protected by a barrier.

A study by researchers with the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health in Cincinnati tested different sized transparent barriers in an isolation room using a cough simulator. The study, which hasn’t yet been peer-reviewed, found that under the right conditions, taller shields, above “cough height,” stopped about 70 percent of the particles from reaching the particle counter on the other side, which is where the store or salon worker would be sitting or standing.

But the study’s authors noted the limitations of the research, particularly that the experiment was conducted under highly controlled conditions. The experiment took place in an isolation room with consistent ventilation rates that didn’t “accurately reflect all real-world situations,” the report said.

The study didn’t consider that workers and customers move around, that other people could be in the room breathing the redirected particles and that many stores and classrooms have several stations with acrylic barriers, not just one, that impede normal air flow.

While further research is needed to determine the effect of adding transparent shields around school or office desks, all the aerosol experts interviewed agreed that desk shields were unlikely to help and were likely to interfere with the normal ventilation of the room. Depending on the conditions, the plastic shields could cause viral particles to accumulate in the room.

“If there are aerosol particles in the classroom air, those shields around students won’t protect them,” said Richard Corsi, the incoming dean of engineering at the University of California, Davis. “Depending on the air flow conditions in the room, you can get a downdraft into those little spaces that you’re now confined in and cause particles to concentrate in your space.”

Aerosol scientists say schools and workplaces should focus on encouraging workers and eligible students to be vaccinated, improving ventilation, adding HEPA air filtering machines when needed and imposing mask requirements — all of which are proven ways to reduce virus transmission.

The problem, experts say, is that most people in charge of erecting barriers in offices, restaurants, nail salons and schools are not doing so with the assistance of engineering experts who can evaluate air flow and ventilation for each room.

People shouldn’t panic when they see transparent barriers, but they shouldn’t view them as fully protective, either. Workers and students who have transparent shields around them should continue to wear a mask to lower risk, Dr. Corsi said.

“Air flow in rooms is pretty complicated,” Dr. Corsi said. “Every room is different in terms of the arrangement of the furniture, the height of the walls and ceilings, the vents, where the book shelves are. All of these things have a huge impact on the actual flow and air distribution in a room because every classroom or office space is different.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/19/well ... alons.html

[Mmoney607]

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155/8

Deaths never above 10 anymore. Strange.

How is it strange?

The mortality rate went up and is now 2.84%
Globally it is 2%

I mean when deaths under 10 it doesn't make headlines but 8 is still a lot. But 8 deaths wouldn't be the 1st story on the news.

[Dohplaydat]

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155/8

Deaths never above 10 anymore. Strange.

How is it strange?

The mortality rate went up and is now 2.84%
Globally it is 2%

I mean when deaths under 10 it doesn't make headlines but 8 is still a lot. But 8 deaths wouldn't be the 1st story on the news.

I believe averaging just 7 deaths a day makes Covid the number 1 cause of death locally taking over from heart disease.

[redmanjp]

so daily cases have been in the 100s for this whole week? seems like the vax immunity starting to kick in then

[DMan7]

so daily cases have been in the 100s for this whole week? seems like the vax immunity starting to kick in then

Wet get thru. Could you imagine if more people were willing to be vaccinated? We be back to normal by now.

[hover11]

Complacency sitting in....delta isn't here and the place had just reopened

so daily cases have been in the 100s for this whole week? seems like the vax immunity starting to kick in then

Wet get thru. Could you imagine if more people were willing to be vaccinated? We be back to normal by now.

[bluefete]

This one is for Republic bank staff.

The one before was for its service providers.

[bluefete]

In other news the government is looking to extend SOE for 3 more months


https://www.cnc3.co.tt/govt-seeks-to-ex ... re-months/

Well that done set as they have the majority

What is the reason for that?

What are they doing in the night (in addition to hiding helicopters) that they don't want the country to know about?

[hover11]

The vaccinated can spread it too. The vaccine is just to prevent hospitalization. Therefore, ALL should be mandated to take the test. If not, then that is pure discrimination in the work place and can be challenged.

This one is for Republic bank staff.

The one before was for its service providers.

[hover11]

They have their reasons wanna bet when this next one is about to end another extension comes lol....remember there was a protest scheduled for September 1st this extension stopped it dead in its tracks

In other news the government is looking to extend SOE for 3 more months


https://www.cnc3.co.tt/govt-seeks-to-ex ... re-months/

Well that done set as they have the majority

What is the reason for that?

What are they doing in the night (in addition to hiding helicopters) that they don't want the country to know about?

[adnj]

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155/8

Deaths never above 10 anymore. Strange.

How is it strange?

The mortality rate went up and is now 2.84%
Globally it is 2%

I mean when deaths under 10 it doesn't make headlines but 8 is still a lot. But 8 deaths wouldn't be the 1st story on the news.

Irrespective of what you may or may not believe, predictor models anticipate the average daily death toll to hover in the 8 to 10 range into December.

Models predict about 250 deaths each month for the remainder of the year, yielding about 2300 deaths in total through 2021 -- assuming that the models do not change, of course.

[hover11]

That's without delta in the equation ?

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155/8

Deaths never above 10 anymore. Strange.

How is it strange?

The mortality rate went up and is now 2.84%
Globally it is 2%

I mean when deaths under 10 it doesn't make headlines but 8 is still a lot. But 8 deaths wouldn't be the 1st story on the news.

Irrespective of what you may or may not believe, predictor models anticipate the average daily death toll to hover in the 8 to 10 range into December.

Models predict about 250 deaths each month for the remainder of the year, yielding about 2300 deaths in total through 2021 -- assuming that the models do not change, of course.

[widdyphuck]

Only way to know if vaccines killing people is to see how many children die if any after taking vaccines.

[adnj]

That's without delta in the equation ?

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155/8

Deaths never above 10 anymore. Strange.

How is it strange?

The mortality rate went up and is now 2.84%
Globally it is 2%

I mean when deaths under 10 it doesn't make headlines but 8 is still a lot. But 8 deaths wouldn't be the 1st story on the news.

Irrespective of what you may or may not believe, predictor models anticipate the average daily death toll to hover in the 8 to 10 range into December.

Models predict about 250 deaths each month for the remainder of the year, yielding about 2300 deaths in total through 2021 -- assuming that the models do not change, of course.

They acknowledge Delta in the neighboring countries. They also assume Delta will reach community transmission locally.

[redmanjp]

The vaccinated can spread it too. The vaccine is just to prevent hospitalization. Therefore, ALL should be mandated to take the test. If not, then that is pure discrimination in the work place and can be challenged.

This one is for Republic bank staff.

The one before was for its service providers.

yeah but that's assuming u get infected to begin with- u are much less likely to get infected if vaccinated. so far the 3 delta cases in is unvaxxed.

[Habit7]

[st7]

i dont see how that will help

[daring dragoon]

Memos coming thick and fast now:



There is one from Yufe's as well.



https://www.facebook.com/alertTandT/pho ... 0547923392

Republic is one kant of a company. How can every jack say we have to learn to live with the virus and the new normal an all that bs when you want all staff return to work as pre covid. Learning to live with the virus means changing the work culture an enabling working remotely or work from home, means roatating staff means working with least number of employees on the ground at any point in time to not spread the virus. Sa.e as bars an resturants, learnin to live with the virus means changing your business model to the new normal. We can never be business as normal again.

[hover11]

So do Nothing basically leave high cases (600 cases)and let deaths continue less than 10 percent of Jamaica is fully vaccinated he is trying something

i dont see how that will help

[st7]

So do Nothing basically leave high cases (600 cases)and let deaths continue less than 10 percent of Jamaica is fully vaccinated he is trying something

i dont see how that will help

tell me how it will help. and punctuate, you're a big boy.

[Duane 3NE 2NR]

If the population isn’t willing to vaccinate then there will be lockdowns. In this case full 72hr lockdowns.

[MaxPower]

If the population isn’t willing to vaccinate then there will be lockdowns. In this case full 72hr lockdowns.

And when they say full lockdowns; make sure it is FULL lockdown.

No galavanting, no food delivery, no underground sales.

No Nothing.

[adnj]

22 cases of COVID-19 Delta variant confirmed in Jamaica


The Ministry says the positive cases are among the results of 40 of 60 samples sent for testing at the Caribbean Public Health Agency

“The epidemiology and laboratory teams are now doing further analysis to see if there is any particular significant factor related to the 22 identified. The public will be kept updated,” Health and Wellness Minister Dr Christopher Tufton said in a media statement.

The ministry did not indicate when the samples were sent for testing.

https://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/new ... ed-jamaica

[adnj]

Covid-19 Cases Rise As Delta Variant Sweeps The Globe
Last week, more than 4 million new cases were reported worldwide.


More than 203 million cases of Covid-19 have been reported since the start of the pandemic. (Direct Relief map)

Cases of Covid-19 continue to rise as the more contagious Delta variant leads to spikes in infections and hospitalizations across the globe.

Last week, more than 4 million new cases were reported worldwide, according to UN News. Overall, the virus has infected roughly 203 million people and killed 4.3 million since the pandemic began, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

This comes as just 15% of the global population has been fully vaccinated, according to Our World in Data. While nearly 4.5 billion doses of the Covid-19 vaccine have been administered worldwide, only 1.1% of people in low-income countries have received at least one dose.

In Africa, Covid-19 deaths surged by 80% in the last month, most likely due to the current wave of Delta variant infections, as reported by CNN. The World Health Organization said that last week Tunisia had the world’s worst official death toll from Covid-19, with ICUs and ERs at capacity across the country. However, on Sunday, the country opened its vaccination eligibility to anyone over 40 years of age and inoculated half a million people in one day. Tunisia hopes to vaccinate half of its population by mid-October, according to France24.

In Southeast Asia, countries continue to grapple with the worst wave of Covid yet. Countries that contained the virus last year, such as Vietnam, are now running out of oxygen and hospital beds. Protests have broken out in Malaysia and Thailand due to economic hardship, and Myanmar is near total collapse under the double crisis of covid and a military coup, as reported by CNN.

Cases are rising again in some parts of India, as experts warn of a third wave later this month. According to the National Herald, Kerala, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, and Karnataka have all had a steady increase in cases over the past week.

In Indonesia, health systems are strained with oxygen and bed shortages. In response, Indonesian doctors have launched a free WhatsApp consultancy service for Covid-19 patients isolating at home. The program has helped patients stay at home and only seek hospital care when urgently needed, according to Al Jazeera.

With the exception of Chile, Latin America is once again becoming a global hotspot for Covid as the Delta variant takes hold. Peru is battling several coronavirus variants at once. Colombia is facing the longest wave of Covid so far, with ICUs at 95% capacity. Across Latin America and the Caribbean, nearly 1.4 million people have been killed by Covid-19, while vaccines ordered through the COVAX program have yet to arrive, according to DW.

At the same time, Latin America is experiencing a surge in political volatility as Covid has exacerbated many of the region’s economic vulnerabilities. Brazil, Argentina, Cuba, Venezuela, Bolivia, Colombia, Chile, Paraguay, and Guatemala have all seen major demonstrations in the streets, as reported by The Guardian.

In the U.S., southern states are experiencing a surge in cases, with many hospitals at or near capacity. Florida, Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri, Mississippi, Alabama, and parts of Texas are reporting some of the highest case rates in the country, according to the New York Times. Florida continues to break record numbers of daily new cases, with 23,903 news cases reported last Friday – the state’s highest single-day count for the sixth day in a row, according to NBC News. For the first time since last February, the United States is averaging more than 100,000 new cases a day.

https://www.directrelief.org/2021/08/co ... the-globe/