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

[paid_influencer]

Aren't there only like 4000 tests and it's near impossible to know how many more would be brought in since the countries which manufacture them have a high demand or are keeping it for themselves?

The issue of not testing more is tied to the fact that we don't have that many tests to utilize.

You can't compare us to other countries who are pumping out test kits and have a robust internal network.

exactly. The tests were rationed, and nobody wants to acknowledge that.

The more relevant question is how many cases are we missing. We know the presentation of the virus can vary from all the way of extremely mild or even asymptomatic. We did not test that population at all, so at this point we honestly do not know how people have the virus here. We can say 114 confirmed cases, but number is surely missing some people.

The surveillance testing next week will shed more light, hopefully.

but discussing that is political, so I done. I is ah sheep.

[MaxPower]

Everyday we are moving inches away from our main goal..

Covid 19 will only change the economy...nothing else.

[Strugglerzinc]

My opinion now:

Right now, if i had COVID-19 symptoms, I would not be so eager and patriotic to call the hotline and get my ass locked up and mistreated by the government and medical institutions, even where i cannot access my own medical information, and locked in way past safe quarantine, etc. like how I am seeing these other people being treated. They even being incompetent with the testing.

I would stay home and quarantine myself and see where it goes. No reported case to the government. Nobody eh testing me. I have a feeling that this going on unreported in quite a few homes. People now fear the government actions just because they have a cough. It would not have to be so bad If everything was open and transparent and the media was allowed to get the correct information.

I don't know if this is political or simply the bureaucracy of a broken system. I think it's the latter. I can't see any political points being scored here, nor the Opposition doing any better job if they were in power.

Truth right here.

[bluefete]

Well said Boxy. Now is not the time for political games. Again I ask, who among the gladiators etc can put forward a solution rather than clucking like hens Everytime someone throws some corn for them to lap up.

Okay Mr.Wing who likes to call out yappers like myself

Solution to C-19:

Develop a vaccine, like they did for Polio, to help our immune system to fight it.

While vaccine is in development, maintain social distancing and cleanliness. Simple.

However, the rate at which this spread globally caught many off-guard.

My bigger issue is disruption in global food supply and the huge rise in unemployment due to C-19, but I will deal with that in the other thread - Post C-19.

[sMASH]

not quarantining persons who test positive, but making them self isolate, and as south korea did, inform citizens in real time where those positive persons were, so that it can be avoided for some time. compared to not testing for the most part, and the few that u do test positive, lock them away for weeks potentially, when for the most part, ur health is relatively normal.

locking u away with out a significant need for medical treatment, will dissuade people from coming forward to get tested.

not testing wider, will also keep people under the radar, while going to get thier documents for the myriad of govt activities they need to do for what ever reason.


"we have limited kits, so cant test every body "

if thats the spirit, then dont waste money on any tests. ur already forcing persons to self isolate for 14 days if they recently came into the country (for non yam expeditions ), so might as well expand it, and just observe the specific symptoms, tell them to self isolate, and if they need medical attention, bring them in. dont waste the money on the tests... is a big problem to use.

[bluefete]

It has already changed the economy, in more ways than one.

Everyday we are moving inches away from our main goal..

Covid 19 will only change the economy...nothing else.

[boxy]

Imagine it have trinis who disavow their country of birth to go here
https://twitter.com/BWestbrookAZ8/status/1250563107874918400?s=19

[sMASH]

Well said Boxy. Now is not the time for political games. Again I ask, who among the gladiators etc can put forward a solution rather than clucking like hens Everytime someone throws some corn for them to lap up.

Okay Mr.Wing who likes to call out yappers like myself

Solution to C-19:

Develop a vaccine, like they did for Polio, to help our immune system to fight it.

While vaccine is in development, maintain social distancing and cleanliness. Simple.

However, the rate at which this spread globally caught many off-guard.

My bigger issue is disruption in global food supply and the huge rise in unemployment due to C-19, but I will deal with that in the other thread - Post C-19.

without no vaccine, the only solution is to social distance and keep ur hygiene and go back out to work. cause u cant stay locked up in doors for much longer, as we economy is crap, the farmers, need to get sales to remain productive, people need money to buy food, the govt needs to get back revenue to pay back the loans and rebuild the HSF.


germany is set to start back its country from may 3rd or 5th or sumting, south korea and china is back in the game...

given our official numbers, of 8 deaths, 20 discharged and 114 positive tests,,, we doing realll gud, so might as well resume activity. rowley dem did well, time to slowly kick it up.
the 27 day contagious period will come to an end by may, so the few people that came in with it, would have had it worked through and it will be gone.

[bluefete]

Notice no talk from the government about re-opening our economy by sending people back out to work.

It might have to be staggered but it is better than having so many on lockdown indefinitely.

BTW - Rebuild the HSF??? This government??

Well said Boxy. Now is not the time for political games. Again I ask, who among the gladiators etc can put forward a solution rather than clucking like hens Everytime someone throws some corn for them to lap up.

Okay Mr.Wing who likes to call out yappers like myself

Solution to C-19:

Develop a vaccine, like they did for Polio, to help our immune system to fight it.

While vaccine is in development, maintain social distancing and cleanliness. Simple.

However, the rate at which this spread globally caught many off-guard.

My bigger issue is disruption in global food supply and the huge rise in unemployment due to C-19, but I will deal with that in the other thread - Post C-19.

without no vaccine, the only solution is to social distance and keep ur hygiene and go back out to work. cause u cant stay locked up in doors for much longer, as we economy is crap, the farmers, need to get sales to remain productive, people need money to buy food, the govt needs to get back revenue to pay back the loans and rebuild the HSF.


germany is set to start back its country from may 3rd or 5th or sumting, south korea and china is back in the game...

given our official numbers, of 8 deaths, 20 discharged and 114 positive tests,,, we doing realll gud, so might as well resume activity. rowley dem did well, time to slowly kick it up.
the 27 day contagious period will come to an end by may, so the few people that came in with it, would have had it worked through and it will be gone.

[Redman]

Well IMHO there are no right answers in this whole thing- regardless of what the govt did or didnt do-there are so many causal variables that are outside of the any ones control that where we are today is largely luck of the draw.

If one person acted differently we could be at 1000 deaths....or conversely 1.

Like oil prices the GORTT responds but does not control.

While I think it early days yet, how we manage the open up is the next big thing.
Food for thought-Its a long winding read.
https://www.zerohedge.com/health/here-g ... -will-look

[MaxPower]

Imagine it have trinis who disavow their country of birth to go here
https://twitter.com/BWestbrookAZ8/status/1250563107874918400?s=19

Its not $1500 grant and $500 food card a month here?

[wing]

Notice no talk from the government about re-opening our economy by sending people back out to work.

It might have to be staggered but it is better than having so many on lockdown indefinitely.

BTW - Rebuild the HSF??? This government??

Well said Boxy. Now is not the time for political games. Again I ask, who among the gladiators etc can put forward a solution rather than clucking like hens Everytime someone throws some corn for them to lap up.

Okay Mr.Wing who likes to call out yappers like myself

Solution to C-19:

Develop a vaccine, like they did for Polio, to help our immune system to fight it.

While vaccine is in development, maintain social distancing and cleanliness. Simple.

However, the rate at which this spread globally caught many off-guard.

My bigger issue is disruption in global food supply and the huge rise in unemployment due to C-19, but I will deal with that in the other thread - Post C-19.

without no vaccine, the only solution is to social distance and keep ur hygiene and go back out to work. cause u cant stay locked up in doors for much longer, as we economy is crap, the farmers, need to get sales to remain productive, people need money to buy food, the govt needs to get back revenue to pay back the loans and rebuild the HSF.


germany is set to start back its country from may 3rd or 5th or sumting, south korea and china is back in the game...

given our official numbers, of 8 deaths, 20 discharged and 114 positive tests,,, we doing realll gud, so might as well resume activity. rowley dem did well, time to slowly kick it up.
the 27 day contagious period will come to an end by may, so the few people that came in with it, would have had it worked through and it will be gone.

I agree with you. The focus should be on how we come out of this. The projections are dire for economies such as ours that import so much essentials. The impending difficult period might be the impetus for us to finally act on diversification, imagine if we had some sort of pharmaceutical manufacturing capacity, whenever the vaccine is developed, we could have been rolling in money. But trying to pretend to be epidemiologist or infectious diseases experts and helping to divide the population with fake news, political posturing and inane commentary is not what is needed at this time.

[Dizzy28]

Is there a press conference today?

[pugboy]

if there is its prob gonna be all on ms alleyne

[ST Auto]

...

[redmanjp]

we still need to expand testing- test ppl with symptoms who don't have a travel history, and perhaps even a random sample of persons say 100 including ppl without symptoms so u can isolate those ppl- they would not otherwise know they are infected and thus spread it to others, and it would show what % of ppl infected and don't know it which would inform further decisions.

the community testing was supposed to start Tuesday- anyone test positive for that yet?

[Duane 3NE 2NR]

if there is its prob gonna be all on ms alleyne

He who shall not be named?

[Redman]

I agree with you. The focus should be on how we come out of this. The projections are dire for economies such as ours that import so much essentials. The impending difficult period might be the impetus for us to finally act on diversification, imagine if we had some sort of pharmaceutical manufacturing capacity, whenever the vaccine is developed, we could have been rolling in money. But trying to pretend to be epidemiologist or infectious diseases experts and helping to divide the population with fake news, political posturing and inane commentary is not what is needed at this time.

Given the fact that they video conferencing the court activity - based on the Alicias issue then we should be saving 60+M a year with justice on the internet vs justice on time.

[shake d livin wake d dead]

Post cabinet media brief @ 2

[Duane 3NE 2NR]

Notice no talk from the government about re-opening our economy by sending people back out to work.

How? We do not yet meet any of the requirements from the World Health Organisation

Any government that wants to start lifting restrictions, said Tedros of WHO, must first meet six conditions:

1. Disease transmission is under control

2. Health systems are able to "detect, test, isolate and treat every case and trace every contact"

3. Hot spot risks are minimized in vulnerable places, such as nursing homes

4. Schools, workplaces and other essential places have established preventive measures

5. The risk of importing new cases "can be managed"

6. Communities are fully educated, engaged and empowered to live under a new normal

https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandso ... s-lockdown

I am not even sure we have peaked as yet in T&T

[adnj]

How coronavirus antibody tests will help

Caitlin Owens

Health care workers and those in other front-line, highly vulnerable sectors will likely benefit the most as new tests come on the market to determine whether a person has had the coronavirus.

The big picture: Serological testing, along with diagnostic testing and contact tracing, is one of the basic tools public health experts say are key to managing the pandemic.

Serological tests identify the antibodies a patient's body produces when it fights this strain of the coronavirus. They test for past infections, not current ones.

Some people likely contracted the coronavirus but didn't feel sick, or weren't able to get a diagnostic test. Serology tests will confirm whether they had it. And on a larger scale that will provide more information about where the virus spread, the real number of cases and the actual death rate from the virus.
Yes, but: “People just think this is the solution, that this is finally the thing, that everybody is going to have immunity passports … and I am very skeptical of this for a variety of reasons,” said Ashish Jha, professor of global health at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

“It’s going to have limited utility outside of hotspot cities and outside of professions where you’re going to see higher exposure,” former Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Scott Gottlieb told me.
Between the lines: Enthusiasm for serology tests as a way to help get people back to work is rooted in the belief that if you have antibodies for the virus in your system, you're immune from catching it again.

But we don't actually know whether that's true, or how strong that immunity might be.
And though the basic science is well-established, some officials, including Anthony Fauci, have cautioned the new tests haven’t yet been proven to work well.
Serology testing will be most useful in hotspots like New York City, Detroit, New Orleans, and Miami — areas where a larger percentage of the population has been infected.

And if the antibodies these tests detect do end up conferring immunity, the tests will be primarily helpful for workers who are at a particularly high risk of spreading the virus — including health care workers, first responders, grocery store workers and people who work with the elderly.
But “outside of the hotspots, I think that the overall rate of positivity is going to be sufficiently low that it’s not going to be a useful tool to return to work,” Gottlieb said.
The bottom line: The value here is in understanding the virus' true spread and helping the highest-risk workplaces operate more safely — not as any kind of universal, nationwide get-back-to-normal permit.

https://www.axios.com/coronavirus-testing-antibodies-hospitals-work-624b8845-4fd2-4bfd-a4ef-79bcd8fc27f3.html

[pugboy]

you trying to rock a 1% feeding trough bro

I agree with you. The focus should be on how we come out of this. The projections are dire for economies such as ours that import so much essentials. The impending difficult period might be the impetus for us to finally act on diversification, imagine if we had some sort of pharmaceutical manufacturing capacity, whenever the vaccine is developed, we could have been rolling in money. But trying to pretend to be epidemiologist or infectious diseases experts and helping to divide the population with fake news, political posturing and inane commentary is not what is needed at this time.

Given the fact that they video conferencing the court activity - based on the Alicias issue then we should be saving 60+M a year with justice on the internet vs justice on time.

[toyolink]

Things seem to becoming a bit messy.
Public confidence in the processes the MOH has been executing to manage the pandemic is now waning and this can seriously inhibit citizens willingness to come forward if symptoms are evident.
The testing protocols are difficult to understand given the questions raised about timing and accuracy.
What is now becoming critical is the abilities of the average family with limited cash reserves to sustain themselves as we get deeper into the time-lines.
When levels of desperation and loss of confidence reach certain thresholds, breakdowns with serious consequences will take place.
A lot of what is being communicated by the state is right but on the other hand a lot that is happening and not happening just doesn't make a whole lot of sense.

[pugboy]

waning ?
more like rock bottom

anybody defending “verbal” results should go join IML

Things seem to becoming a bit messy.
Public confidence in the processes the MOH has been executing to manage the pandemic is now waning and this can seriously inhibit citizens willingness to come forward if symptoms are evident.
The testing protocols are difficult to understand given the questions raised about timing and accuracy.
What is now becoming critical is the abilities of the average family with limited cash reserves to sustain themselves as we get deeper into the time-lines.
When levels of desperation and loss of confidence reach certain thresholds, breakdowns with serious consequences will take place.
A lot of what is being communicated by the state is right but on the other hand a lot that is happening and not happening just doesn't make a whole lot of sense.

[carluva]

Notice no talk from the government about re-opening our economy by sending people back out to work.

How? We do not yet meet any of the requirements from the World Health Organisation

Any government that wants to start lifting restrictions, said Tedros of WHO, must first meet six conditions:

1. Disease transmission is under control

2. Health systems are able to "detect, test, isolate and treat every case and trace every contact"

3. Hot spot risks are minimized in vulnerable places, such as nursing homes

4. Schools, workplaces and other essential places have established preventive measures

5. The risk of importing new cases "can be managed"

6. Communities are fully educated, engaged and empowered to live under a new normal

https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandso ... s-lockdown

I am not even sure we have peaked as yet in T&T

No one can predict with any certainty how to treat with this situation. The facts are that each country has its own unique cultures, behaviours, laws, geo-politics, economies, bases for budgets, governance and the list goes on. So what may work for China, Germany and South Korea may not work for us or another country as those countries are able to work within its parameters of the system to be able to attempt to resume normalcy. Not to mention that such countries were strong economies pre COVID-19 and by merit of that (and other named factors) can attempt to resume their economy.

Sweet T&T is nothing like that. Culture - we have a party mentality, make everything a joke and never take anything seriously. Behaviours - well there is enough rhetoric in this thread to demonstrate just how terrible our behaviours can be (from the inability to comply with rules to our profound littering). Economy - we were struggling before COVID-19 as can be clearly seen by shortage of US foreign exchange and we have a budget built on paying of massive debts and salaries to an inefficient working population. Governance - since our independence we cannot have good rule in this country and we have become an Indian vs African population, a PNM vs UNC population as opposed to a population that can move as one, regardless of who is ruling. I have no political allegiance but the only leaders who had a vision were Manning (as he had the vision 2020) and Panday to a much lesser extent (as he had the vision to set up a HSF based on the wealth of our country at that time).

My point is that those 6 criteria above may well apply, but we have alot of roadblocks to overcome as a Nation and a people to scratch each of those from the list and then attempt to move forward to some semblance of normalcy. And yes, I am doubtful that we have peaked and so trying to resume normalcy will cause the peak to rapidly come and overwhelm the health care system. This is why we have to evaluate it as T&T and, dare I say possibly even CARICOM, and come up with the plans that allow us to return to normalcy.

[aaron17]

Rel busy on the roads today, idk why ...

[Mercenary]

not having access to your medical tests is rather suspect
as they say, the first casuality in a war is usually the truth

Ditto

[shake d livin wake d dead]

Rel busy on the roads today, idk why ...

Not today alone nuh...since tuesday....idk but it seems as if people moving around as normal

[sMASH]

lets apply the official data to our situation...

Notice no talk from the government about re-opening our economy by sending people back out to work.

How? We do not yet meet any of the requirements from the World Health Organisation

Any government that wants to start lifting restrictions, said Tedros of WHO, must first meet six conditions:

1. Disease transmission is under controlout of 1.7m persons we have 114 cases, 8 deaths, and the vast majority of cases are imported. with little local or community transmission

2. Health systems are able to "detect, test, isolate and treat every case and trace every contact"by the criteria set out by the Quarantine Authority, all person suspected were in self isolation, and if tested positive, were quarantined

3. Hot spot risks are minimized in vulnerable places, such as nursing homesno cases tested positive from these areas

4. Schools, workplaces and other essential places have established preventive measuresschools are closed for the foreseeable future, well past the expected peak

5. The risk of importing new cases "can be managed"we have at least 800 beds and a myriad of quarantine facilities available and well under utilized at this time

6. Communities are fully educated, engaged and empowered to live under a new normalwe are as educated as can be hoped for

https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandso ... s-lockdown

I am not even sure we have peaked as yet in T&T the majority of cases were imported, the primary contacts self isolate or quarantined, and only 114 cases, with no significant trend upwards, which would mean minimal local and community spread.

these are the numbers the govt has gathered and are releasing officially, these are the measures the govt has put in place, so going by that, numbers show that we are in a good place, and does not show community or local spread.

any second or third wave will be made by persons creating their won pyramid, being the primary/secondary contacts.

the procedures we have is positive cases will be quarantined, and only let back out with a consecutive negative tests.
all the data we get from the government indicates that by the time the lock down is complete, all cases would either expired or recovered, and therefore no source of local transmission.


if u draw any other conclusion, then u may be interpreting data outside of what the govt has collected and officially published

[bluefete]

Given those 6 conditions, especially point #2 and point #6, we will be on lockdown for the next few years. That cannot be sustainable for our economy.

Each government must do its own assessment and determine when to move. We are no different. The real aspect of this has not hit as yet. I have family members who were laid off and will have no jobs to go back to. I can already see severe food shortages because we are a major importer of food / raw materials and the global supply chain has been severely disrupted. How long will it take to restock the essentials that we need if farmers have to throw away their crops, milk etc and processors are mothballed or operating at minimum capacity? We are not paying attention to those who are sending the message.

Denmark has re-opened some of their schools (I know our culture is not close to Denmark's).

By the way, those figures that we get from the Ministry about the samples submitted (1,283) - that does not represent number of people tested, because you may have one person tested 2 or 3 times in the samples submitted.

The protocols have been applied to almost all those 6 points.

Notice no talk from the government about re-opening our economy by sending people back out to work.

How? We do not yet meet any of the requirements from the World Health Organisation

Any government that wants to start lifting restrictions, said Tedros of WHO, must first meet six conditions:

1. Disease transmission is under control

2. Health systems are able to "detect, test, isolate and treat every case and trace every contact"

3. Hot spot risks are minimized in vulnerable places, such as nursing homes

4. Schools, workplaces and other essential places have established preventive measures

5. The risk of importing new cases "can be managed"

6. Communities are fully educated, engaged and empowered to live under a new normal

https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandso ... s-lockdown

I am not even sure we have peaked as yet in T&T