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

[No_Name]

If it was written by someone with a non Indian last name it would have been more palatable I guess...

Holding the Govt accountable and asking critical questions and demanding transparency is not being Anti PNM. It's being a responsible citizen with a brain that is capable of some level of critical thinking.

I guess that's not likely to be pro PNM...

Appreciate this research

AH LIKE YOU...!!!

Doh blame The Followers tho. Remember their Great Gran Fadda, Eric said "The future is in yr bookbags", BUT, he didn't furnish em with those specific tools, he killed the agriculture industry, so they were left with no sense of belonging. (Mind you, they real obedient as Followers ah, till this day)...
So, ignorance is their bliss as demonstrated in whatever little thoughts they conjure in their little minds...

From FB

Rajiv Seereeram
8 hrs
COVID 19 surveillance, Trinidad and Tobago vs Hawaii

Trinidad and Tobago and the Hawaiian Islands are tropical territories, with similar climates, and population sizes (Hawaii 1.4 million, T&T 1.5 million). At present the total COVID 19 death toll in both T&T and Hawaii remain comfortingly low. Hawaii stands at 9 and reportedly Trinidad is 8. However, the case fatality rate* (CFR) in Hawaii is a respectable 1.7% when compared to T&T which has an abysmal record of 7%. In fact, T&T’s COVID-19 CFR even exceeds the state of New York (5.7%)! How is this possible?

On the 13th of March both islands had only 2 positive cases, and no deaths. In fact, at that time T&T even conducted more tests than Hawaii (63 vs 54 tests). However, over the next week Hawaii had escalated their surveillance, conducting over 2000 tests by the 20th March. In so doing they detected 35 new cases. By the 20th March T&T only tested 187 more samples and detected 7 new patients. Fast forward to the 15th of April, Hawaii tested 19,972 samples, detected 528 COVID-19 cases and had 9 deaths. By comparison to date we only tested 1282 samples, some of which were repeat samples from the same patient. So even though we had 8 deaths, with so few samples being tested we have only detected 114 COVID-19 cases. This accounts for our abysmal CFR. It is likely that the true prevalence of COVID-19 in T&T is significantly larger and can only be unmasked if there was adequate testing.

* The case fatality rate (CFR) is the number of deaths divided by the number of cases detected over a period.

What can account for this failure in local COVID-19 surveillance?

Since mid-March Hawaii started sentinel screening in which random sample of patients in the community is tested with the intention of detecting community transmission before it became widespread. Even though we didn’t have a protocol for sentinel screening, COVID-19 testing should have at least been scaled up from the minute local transmission was suspected. However, T&T maintained an unreasonably stringent testing criteria well after local transmission was declared by the WHO on the 26th. (Note the government delayed this announcement for 3 days). Physicians were diligently conducting nasopharyngeal swabbing and submitting suspicious local cases to the Ministry and CARPHA, however it appears that many samples were rejected because the patient may not have had a “relevant travel history” or contact with an affected individual. If the testing policy and practice was earnest in detecting community spread, then patients with relevant symptoms should have been tested, regardless of travel history.
In fact, whilst testing in Hawaii has accelerated over the last month up to the 13th testing in Trinidad and Tobago had plateaued and sometimes slowed! This is a trend throughout most of the CARPHA member countries, and it is possible that many islands may also be faltering in surveillance.

In T&T several glaring public health policy oversights may account for the failure in COVID surveillance

1) T&T maintains a policy of forced institutional quarantine for all positive cases. This is a futile and obstructive position, because it presents a major deterrent to suspicious patients, who are fearful of “incarceration” if tested positive. In North America (Hawaii), Europe and other compassionate societies, positive patients with mild to moderate symptoms who do not require inpatient care are placed in home quarantine and monitored remotely. Here we treat the unfortunate few who have been detected, like leapers in a colony under protracted quarantine. All the while other mildly symptomatic or asymptomatic COVID cases roam freely because they have escaped detection. Citizens may feel as though they are being punished for acting responsibly and getting tested.

2) The Ministry of Health in collaboration with CARPHA is micromanaging surveillance, and not permitting physicians to use their clinical discretion in testing. This may be a conservative measure; however, it assumes that one or two officers far away from the front line can supplant the clinical judgement of thousands of doctors on the field.

3) Unlike Hawaii which marshaled the resources of private labs from the beginning of the outbreak, the MOH and CARPHA, refused to tap into this resource. In fact, even when the MOH announced accreditation of local labs, it still insists that positive results are not disclosed to the paying client, before it vets the result. In Hawaii several labs offer roadside testing, which is accessible via the discretion of a physician. A positive result obtained from a non-reference lab is immediately compiled into the national registry as a “probable” case. This can be retested by the national lab if necessary. However, in T&T the MOH and CARPHA seemed to posture acrimoniously against the private sector, and attempts to police these labs with a “big stick”

4) Test results are often returned as “verbal’s”, which seem rather suspicious to both clinicians and patients. For example, without the submission of a typewritten, stamped and signed report, it is possible for a patient’s status to change “over the phone”. This practice significantly erodes public trust in the reporting system.

The delay in active surveillance, well after our community spread began, seems to have left us in a state of darkness, with little confidence in our case numbers. This is made worse by a lack of post-mortem testing; It’s likely that patients who may benefit from medical care are not being identified early enough to access treatment (e.g. supportive or emerging COVID-19 specific therapies), and even after death they are not recorded as a COVID-19 statistic.

It is likely that a severe shortage of testing kits in the region has resulted in very austere test rationing. Yet the Ministry of Health, and the government is ultimately responsible for sourcing, and procuring quality assured testing kits in a timely manner. Despite the bad press, North America supplied Hawaii with over 19,000 tests to date. A lack of kits is not an acceptable excuse for surveillance failure and citizens should be assured that all measures are taken to secure this critical supply.

To its credit the ministry announced that it has up-scaled its community surveillance since the 13th April and has dedicating a health center in each county for testing. However, the impact on the rate of testing or the number of cases detected is yet to be seen. Without swift address of the above four (4) policy shortcomings, its possible that the public participation in surveillance will remain lackluster. If the true scope of the outbreak continues to evade us the public will remain in a state of stupor, eventually becoming apathetic to social distancing and infection control measures. Furthermore, in the absence of reliable data, how can we know when it’s safe to return to work, school, or reopen industries? How do we chart a way out of this crisis if we are flying blind? The Ministry of Health should take heed of Hawaii’s COVID-19 surveillance, consider what our true numbers might be, and get its act together immediately.

Dr R Seereeram
Public Health Nutrition & Diabetes.

Looks like another anti pnm stooge. Research is much more than just googling some stats.bcda8dc.jpeg

[MaxPower]

[supercharged turbo]

Unless your a small business owner

NYC stay-home order extended until May 15.

Only a matter of time before we copy them.

this stay home thing not so bad.

[VII]

Just saw my first plane in weeks,cargo?

[eliteauto]

Just saw my first plane in weeks,cargo?

Saw 2 last night as well

[adnj]

Early signs are encouraging for potential coronavirus drug


Coronavirus patients in a Chicago hospital recovered quickly after receiving remdesivir, a drug made by Gilead Sciences, according to STAT. It’s the latest positive sign for a drug that’s already seen as one of the most promising potential treatments for the novel coronavirus.

Yes, but: This is an anecdotal report, not the kind of rigorous clinical-trial data that can support firm conclusions about remdesivir’s effectiveness. Gilead is set to release more fulsome clinical data later this month. Nevertheless, stock futures soared on the possibility of an effective treatment.

https://www.axios.com/coronavirus-treatment-remdesivir-patients-recover-b54793a5-f883-49fb-a874-bd32a9648040.html

[The_Honourable]

Can heat kill the Coronavirus? Can the virus spread from corpses? Does air conditioning help spread the virus?

[redmanjp]

Heal The World by Staying Home, Washing Hands, Wearing a mask if you must go out

[Kenjo]

Just saw my first plane in weeks,cargo?

Saw 2 last night as well

Yes Aeropost and other cargo companies have been keeping up

[bluefete]

So how much the council of elders getting paid?

Or are they doing it as a national contribution?

And as others stated, Dr. Farrell resigned in frustration from the Economic Advisory Board because ALL his hard work and recommendations were ignored.

[rspann]

Miss Alleyene through Gerald Ramdeen just withdrew his legal challenge in the courts because of medical records filed . Costs to be assessed . She will have to pay . It is alleged .

Source?

One of your trusted employees.

[Redman]

Early signs are encouraging for potential coronavirus drug


Coronavirus patients in a Chicago hospital recovered quickly after receiving remdesivir, a drug made by Gilead Sciences, according to STAT. It’s the latest positive sign for a drug that’s already seen as one of the most promising potential treatments for the novel coronavirus.

Yes, but: This is an anecdotal report, not the kind of rigorous clinical-trial data that can support firm conclusions about remdesivir’s effectiveness. Gilead is set to release more fulsome clinical data later this month. Nevertheless, stock futures soared on the possibility of an effective treatment.

https://www.axios.com/coronavirus-treatment-remdesivir-patients-recover-b54793a5-f883-49fb-a874-bd32a9648040.html

The was posted on ZH...but this morning (Friday) Fox Business ran a story on this...quoting STAT.

https://www.zerohedge.com/health/gilead ... ical-power

Gilead Pours Cold Water On Report That Sent Market Soaring: "Anecdotal Reports With No Statistical Power"

Gilead issued a statement which suggested that STAT was pumping the stock based on nothing more than "anecdotal reports" to wit:

"We understand the urgent need for a Covid-19 treatment and the resulting interest in data on our investigational antiviral drug remdesivir. The totality of the data need to be analysed in order to draw any conclusions from the trial."

"Anecdotal reports, while encouraging, do not provide the statistical power necessary to determine the safety and efficacy profile of remdesivir as a treatment for Covid-19. We expect the data from our Phase 3 study in patients with severe Covid-19 infection to be available at the end of this month, and additional data from other studies to become available in May."

[adnj]

Early signs are encouraging for potential coronavirus drug


Coronavirus patients in a Chicago hospital recovered quickly after receiving remdesivir, a drug made by Gilead Sciences, according to STAT. It’s the latest positive sign for a drug that’s already seen as one of the most promising potential treatments for the novel coronavirus.

Yes, but: This is an anecdotal report, not the kind of rigorous clinical-trial data that can support firm conclusions about remdesivir’s effectiveness. Gilead is set to release more fulsome clinical data later this month. Nevertheless, stock futures soared on the possibility of an effective treatment.

https://www.axios.com/coronavirus-treatment-remdesivir-patients-recover-b54793a5-f883-49fb-a874-bd32a9648040.html

The was posted on ZH...but this morning (Friday) Fox Business ran a story on this...quoting STAT.

https://www.zerohedge.com/health/gilead ... ical-power

Gilead Pours Cold Water On Report That Sent Market Soaring: "Anecdotal Reports With No Statistical Power"

Gilead issued a statement which suggested that STAT was pumping the stock based on nothing more than "anecdotal reports" to wit:

"We understand the urgent need for a Covid-19 treatment and the resulting interest in data on our investigational antiviral drug remdesivir. The totality of the data need to be analysed in order to draw any conclusions from the trial."

"Anecdotal reports, while encouraging, do not provide the statistical power necessary to determine the safety and efficacy profile of remdesivir as a treatment for Covid-19. We expect the data from our Phase 3 study in patients with severe Covid-19 infection to be available at the end of this month, and additional data from other studies to become available in May."

Exactly the point made in the Axios article.

[adnj]

China's virus death toll revised up sharply after review

By KEN MORITSUGU

an hour ago


BEIJING (AP) — China’s official death toll from the coronavirus pandemic jumped sharply Friday as the hardest-hit city of Wuhan announced a major revision that added nearly 1,300 fatalities.

The new figures resulted from an in-depth review of deaths during a response that was chaotic in the early days. They raised the official toll in Wuhan by 50% to 3,869 deaths. While China has yet to update its national totals, the revised numbers push up China’s total to 4,632 deaths from a previously reported 3,342.

The higher numbers are not a surprise — it is virtually impossible to get an accurate count when health systems are overwhelmed at the height of a crisis — and they confirm suspicions that many more people died than the official figures had showed.

The undercount stemmed from several factors, according to a notification issued by Wuhan’s coronavirus response headquarters and published by the official Xinhua News Agency.

The reasons included the deaths of people at home because overwhelmed hospitals had no room for them, mistaken reporting by medical staff focused on saving lives, and deaths at a few medical institutions that weren’t linked to the epidemic information network, it said.

“As a result, belated, missed and mistaken reporting occurred,” Xinhua quoted an unidentified official from the city’s response headquarters as saying.

Deaths outside hospitals were not registered previously and some medical institutions reported cases late or not at all, the official said.

A group to review the numbers was established in late March. It looked at data from multiple sources including the city’s hospital and funeral service systems and collected information from fever clinics, temporary hospitals, quarantine sites, prisons and elderly care centers.

The review found 1,454 additional deaths, as well as 164 that had been double-counted or misclassified as coronavirus cases, resulting in a net increase of 1,290. The number of confirmed cases in the city of 11 million people was revised up slightly to 50,333.

Questions have long swirled around the accuracy of China’s case reporting, with Wuhan in particular going several days in January without reporting new cases or deaths. That has led to accusations that Chinese officials were seeking to minimize the impact of the outbreak and could have brought it under control sooner.

A group of eight medical workers, including a doctor who later died from the virus, were even reprimanded and threatened by police after they tried to alert others about the disease over social media.

Chinese officials have denied covering up cases, saying their reports were accurate and timely. However, the U.N.’s World Health Organization has come under criticism for defending China’s handling of the outbreak and U.S. President Donald Trump has suspended funding to WHO over what he alleges is its pro-China bias.

Trump’s blaming of China came after he initially showered praise on Chinese President Xi Jinping for the country’s response, while largely dismissing the risk it posed to the U.S.

At the start of the outbreak, China proceeded cautiously and largely in secret, emphasizing political stability. Experts estimate more than 3,000 people were infected before China’s government told the public about the gravity of the situation, which officials had concluded six days earlier.

The risk of sustained human-to-human transmission was also downplayed, even while infected people entered hospitals across the country and the first case outside China was found, in Thailand.

As Trump and other U.S. officials and lawmakers started blaming China for the outbreak, Chinese officials sought to shift blame back to the U.S. “It might be US army who brought the epidemic to Wuhan,” foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian tweeted in March, picking up on an unsubstantiated conspiracy theory.



[URL]https://apnews.com/599338c54097ab68a1f2eda09c2d8a3b
[/URL]

[Dizzy28]

^China suffered from the virus 1st when it was least known. Draconican CCP Lockdown measures or not their overall death toll of under double New York's worst daily death toll was always suspicious.

[Duane 3NE 2NR]

https://www.facebook.com/tttliveonline/ ... 028287019/
Attorney General talking on Covid-19 legislation

[screwbash]

no pandemic, d man wah keep the people home to break they spirit to make the people zombies to accept the vaccine and the bs they feeding the world. how the 90 year old queen recover so fast, how 70+ prince charles recover so fast and other nobody in italy and UK and US dying so fast. this is BS the feeding we.

[Dohplaydat]

no pandemic, d man wah keep the people home to break they spirit to make the people zombies to accept the vaccine and the bs they feeding the world. how the 90 year old queen recover so fast, how 70+ prince charles recover so fast and other nobody in italy and UK and US dying so fast. this is BS the feeding we.

Wait, big man like you afraid this vaccine? Also the queen never had it, and haven't u seen the countless older ppl who survived as well? Worse mortality rate I've seen was 14% for the 80+ people.....which means 86% over 80 survived it.

[screwbash]

like you doh believe in the bible and jesus ah wah. d bible say they go tag we with d mark ah d beast, this is what coming in the vaccine. they create a reason for we go accept the vaccine.

[Dizzy28]

like you doh believe in the bible and jesus ah wah. d bible say they go tag we with d mark ah d beast, this is what coming in the vaccine. they create a reason for we go accept the vaccine.

There's a whole thread for those story books, it's called the Religion Thread.

Leave this one for more serious discussions on the actual virus itself.

[adnj]

no pandemic, d man wah keep the people home to break they spirit to make the people zombies to accept the vaccine and the bs they feeding the world. how the 90 year old queen recover so fast, how 70+ prince charles recover so fast and other nobody in italy and UK and US dying so fast. this is BS the feeding we.

........

[Redman]

There ain't no rhyme or reason on this virus.

A friend in CA recovered in 2 weeks ....her husband almost died...and is still in a mess.

She has been a cracked egg since childhood while he is a health buff.

One employee s daughters died in NY..18 years old.

Seems impossible to guage a specific individual s response to infection.

[Gladiator]

There ain't no rhyme or reason on this virus.

A friend in CA recovered in 2 weeks ....her husband almost died...and is still in a mess.

She has been a cracked egg since childhood while he is a health buff.

One employee s daughters died in NY..18 years old.

Seems impossible to guage a specific individual s response to infection.

its almost like this virus is selecting who to kill and who to let live....

[toyolink]

The truth for T&T seems to be the fact that we will have to learn to live with this threat to our lives for some time.
This is nothing new given our experience with H1N1 where it took us a long while to have approved treatment options available and still we have and continue to lose many souls.
Our new normalcy may require us to do things we should have been doing to avoid spreading contagious viruses such as stop spiting, sneezing, coughing at will and washing hands regularly.
Additionally encourage parents to keep kids who are ill to stay home until fully recovered since our poor kids just seem to be recycling the flu when at school.
Work place hygiene is another massive conversation and the ramifications of sick leave.

[Cantmis]

https://youtu.be/qsMp2pZK-Cw

[MaxPower]

Look around,

Trinis aren’t learning for anything.

[supercharged turbo]

Anybody know of a any cloth stores opening in central?

[rspann]

No there aren't any branches of Jimmy Aboud and sons.

[Redman]

No there aren't any branches of Jimmy Aboud and sons.

Spoken like a true 99% er

[rspann]

Facts is facts.

The only thing we , the 99 % could discuss is what percentile we in .