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

[supercharged turbo]

I thought that by month end the stay at home orders would be relaxed somewhat and non-essential businesses would get a chance to maybe open a few days.I don't mind working 3 days instead of 7 but this 2 months going and hit hard after this week.

[goalpost]

I thought the pandemic leave was more geared to parents who need to stay at home with kids? This should be addressed though, before the country's workforce is reopened in full.

[MaxPower]

Growlers have to be so out of touch with poor people to make a comment like that. Especially where he admitted the grants are slow in coming .

Nevertheless PNM is winning this election.

[maj. tom]

Most the population right now, myself included: "look me eh want nobody to test me nah. I rather dead than get lock up in Caura and treated like a stray dog."

[ST Auto]

And that's what they was aiming for

Most the population right now, myself included: "look me eh want nobody to test me nah. I rather dead than get lock up in Caura and treated like a stray dog."

[Kronik]

Most the population right now, myself included: "look me eh want nobody to test me nah. I rather dead than get lock up in Caura and treated like a stray dog."

That's the same thing I saying

[sMASH]

^^ i had all the pieces, telling every body, and did not make that connection... i know they trying to hide the figures, i know they made it unpalatable to get tested privately. did not connect that they intentionally push people away from testing.

[redmanjp]

^^ i had all the pieces, telling every body, and did not make that connection... i know they trying to hide the figures, i know they made it unpalatable to get tested privately. did not connect that they intentionally push people away from testing.

so why ramp up testing now if that was the intention?

[sMASH]

^^ i had all the pieces, telling every body, and did not make that connection... i know they trying to hide the figures, i know they made it unpalatable to get tested privately. did not connect that they intentionally push people away from testing.

so why ramp up testing now if that was the intention?

the criteria for testing is the crux. i put it in some other thread. for the last year, 33 persons died of respiratory complications. on one of the conferences they said that they were testing 70 respiratory deaths for possibility for for covid. parasram said to a question that they did not notice a signficant bump in respiratory deaths. we should expect that respiratory deaths would be the typical we normally get + covid. so if we average that 40 deaths is regular respiratory, the balance would be covid... so working wtih 70 u will have 40 regualar and 30 covid. but they said they got negative for covid of all those bodies.

but we already see the respiratory deaths have practically doubled from last year. annnd the deaths they tested, is that for one week, two weeks, a month, two months, since this year's start?? or is it just a sample size of all the respiratory deaths.

i know of some deaths that had some symptoms of covid, but not tested, just left as respiratory or what ever. i just know they had no covid test done.

they controling the information, capfra will only test what samples they are given. where i worked, we knew how to make all the effluent samples meet all the environmental requirements. they could request how much ever samples they want, once we taking them and dont want to harbar, all the sample comin back in within spec.
but, we didnt do that cause every so often u got independent samplers to come take samples and test... so u cant be going good for weeks on end and then the independent results come back bad.....

the selection process of the bodies for testing, and the actual samples they send to caphra. unless they doing dna testing, carpha have no way to tie the sample that they runnin, to the body that it came from .

[Redress10]

Smash

You are talking a full pack of sh*t in here and your yellow underwear is showing. You are living in a lite small island republic off the coast of Venezuela in the caribbean. Not communist China. Gov't isn't hiding anything...this is trinidad where everything is leaked and ppl can't keep their mouths shut to save their lives and you think there is some conspiracy to cover up covid? Steups.

Trinidad's covid timeline started end of February so anything before that is irrelevant to understanding covid spread. I highly doubt that you know plenty people who died from covid symptoms. What sort of weird person are you to say these things.

You are either a weird person or a stupid person. I'm beginning to believe that you are weirdly stupid. You clearly have no idea about the workings of infectious diseases and continue to spew wild conspiracies. Go and educate yourself.

[sMASH]

i didnt say i know plenty people that dead. i just know that there were some deaths that were respiratory but no covid tests done.

i am conspiracy nut, except that i like to base things off of data, and that is very sparse these days. and i am saying INTENTIONALLY so. and if its not intentionally, well then its gross stupidity in its management.

infectious disease;
person A expels the virus/bacteria from their respiratory tract, into the air or on a surface. person B inhales those particulates, or touches those surfaces and collects those particulates and transports it into their respiratory tract. break any part of that chain and u have no infectious disease spread.

the reason why this thing spreading so rapidly is because of asymptomatic spread. people just carrying it all over. so even from february, u will get that going on.
the most experts in this thing have said, many people would have gotten it and gotten over it without even knowing they had it.
same cyclist fella, barely had symptoms, got locked away for around 30 days. if he had happened to just not get tested, like how the chinese that came here without screening AFTER china was on the no fly list, he would be out and about.
if ian alleyne did not voluntarily go to get tested, he would have continued out and about, thinking all he had was a flu, and nobody did know.

[Redress10]

i didnt say i know plenty people that dead. i just know that there were some deaths that were respiratory but no covid tests done.

i am conspiracy nut, except that i like to base things off of data, and that is very sparse these days. and i am saying INTENTIONALLY so.

I don't think there is any intentional misleading going on. I think gov't is micro managing at a level that they we are not familiar with. Exchange ebola for covid and you'll prob get this same level of detail and micromanagement from a tt gov't. The US etc have different levels of responses for different scenarios. So a chemical terrorist attack will initiate a different response to a yellow fever outbreak. Our reaction is to apply a hammer as everything looks like a nail. Remember this is new to our country so even our protocols are being rewritten.

Every country have different health protocols they follow so you can't compare what taking place in USA etc with regards to testing, quaratine and treatment. When someone in Trinidad gets a virus such as hiv they basically become a ward of the state. All of their treatment is covered and monitored by the state for the rest of their lives. That is to protect the rest of the general population from infection. In the US they are largely left to fend for themselves. In Cuba they are removed from the population for up to 8 weeks to undergo intensive mandatory information about their condition. In North Korea they would prob place that person infront of a firing squad.

Remember, the focus is on the infectious disease and not the individual person. It's about stemming the spread of the disease. So all this talk about not enough testing is foolishness. Alluh doh know what alluh want. Just like the woman who want to sue cause she find they kept her in Caura for too long. The minute that you are admitted for an infectious disease then the gov't is in complete control of you to ensure that you are not a danger to the rest of us. Gov't can't release an infectious person back into general population. That is an ethical and legal nightmare.

[sMASH]

personally, i agree with what sweden is doing, but if u want to acheive the goals that PNM set out to achieve, the way to do it is what south korea did.
the only points i giving pnm, is the extension of the lock down, cause data or no data, that is how u hadda do it... given this is the way they want to tackle it.
yes, i know i was saying to open back up. that was because 115 cases and 8 deaths, is no reason to say that u have an epidemic. they just dont have sufficient data to back up their course of actions.

the people in barbados, thats not micro management, thats just pure incompetence. it acheived nothing except forcing the people to spend out thier money. all the talk about putting every ting in place, jsut pure pappy show, cause when u hear america do sumting, we getting it a couple days later. the comfort police, that had no legitimate purpose except to pay some financiers and safeguard 1% properties.

will be following up to hear how many private facilities decided to assist with covid testing. given that alwaris slapping them with a 50k fine if they dont adhere to the rules properly

[K74T]

Jamaica:

[Redress10]

Smash

We already broke the chain by limiting crowds, wearing masks and self isolating etc. So the virus literally can't spread. These were initiated early on before there would have even been community spread. That's the whole point. Our numbers are this low because the virus didn't get the chance to spread. That is why you use barrier methods.

Symptoms are irrelevant to disease spread and only important to understand a test result. ALL viral symtoms are similar. You can't tell what someone has just by their "symptoms". It could literally be any disease on the planet. That is why they are called "viral" symptoms. You can't test randomly because a negative test tells you nothing about a person without possible symptoms and exposure history. This is why symptoms are key to testing as the worst the symptoms are usually a sign of a high viral load. The higher the viral load the more reliable the test results will be. All of this plays a part in how you allocate your resources. The USA does alot of tests because those tests are private. People are literally just walking in and doing rapid tests etc and going about their lives with no gov't medical intervention etc. That is just a number to the gov't. They are nothing but a statistic. There is no parallel health system. Hence they are being overwhelmed.

The cyclist and the national jamette would have infected those closest to them if they were to cause major community spread. That goes for anyone who is asymtomatic as well. They first need to infect close friends, relatives and work colleagues to have a chance at community spread. Not to mention frontline healthcare workers. As long as those people are not being infected then the reality for community spread is very low. The risks of surface contamination is actually very low.

[sMASH]

since we have no data to justify our actions, we're just looking at other countries, america is setting them self up to be a wide case study, where some places remaining closed, some reopening, but wtih massive testing rates. at least till our time of lock down, they woudl have had a good enough run to see where the trends heading.

[Dohplaydat]

Smash

We already broke the chain by limiting crowds, wearing masks and self isolating etc. So the virus literally can't spread. These were initiated early on before there would have even been community spread. That's the whole point. Our numbers are this low because the virus didn't get the chance to spread. That is why you use barrier methods.

Symptoms are irrelevant to disease spread and only important to understand a test result. ALL viral symtoms are similar. You can't tell what someone has just by their "symptoms". It could literally be any disease on the planet. That is why they are called "viral" symptoms. You can't test randomly because a negative test tells you nothing about a person without possible symptoms and exposure history. This is why symptoms are key to testing as the worst the symptoms are usually a sign of a high viral load. The higher the viral load the more reliable the test results will be. All of this plays a part in how you allocate your resources. The USA does alot of tests because those tests are private. People are literally just walking in and doing rapid tests etc and going about their lives with no gov't medical intervention etc. That is just a number to the gov't. They are nothing but a statistic. There is no parallel health system. Hence they are being overwhelmed.

The cyclist and the national jamette would have infected those closest to them if they were to cause major community spread. That goes for anyone who is asymtomatic as well. They first need to infect close friends, relatives and work colleagues to have a chance at community spread. Not to mention frontline healthcare workers. As long as those people are not being infected then the reality for community spread is very low. The risks of surface contamination is actually very low.

While random asymptomatic testing at this point is pointless since it's likely to turn up all negatives. We missed the boat big time by not testing people with symptoms.

My colleague was literally a prime candidate for testing, in direct contact with a person who's entire family later tested positive for Covid-19 in the US. Yet because his symptoms were mild he was refused testing. I have 3 similar stories like this.

MoH has done some of the least testing per million in the world. There's a metric I've seen some use internationally to determine how effective a country is handling Covid-19.

Normalize a score for TPM (tests per million) and mortality, ours is nearly 7% and TPM is one of the lowest in the world.

A partner of mine did it in excel and TT was in the bottom 15 of the world here. Now the cruise ship severely skews data so but even still, we aren't testing enough and right now several people admit on Facebook they not going in for testing unless they need hospitalisation.

That means over the last 3 weeks we are only testing the 5-10% of persons who actually need hospitalisation.

The MoH and the CMO know that 50-80% of our cases are undetected. That means there can be 200 people with Covid-19 out there, sheltering at home with their families and infecting them. Perhaps many cases being mild or asymptomatic. The hope is all these ppl will not be contagious when May 15th arrives.

That is the reason the lockdown is extended to May 15th, let's not kid ourselves.

[sMASH]

Smash

We already broke the chain by limiting crowds, wearing masks and self isolating etc. So the virus literally can't spread. These were initiated early on before there would have even been community spread. That's the whole point. Our numbers are this low because the virus didn't get the chance to spread. That is why you use barrier methods.

Symptoms are irrelevant to disease spread and only important to understand a test result. ALL viral symtoms are similar. You can't tell what someone has just by their "symptoms". It could literally be any disease on the planet. That is why they are called "viral" symptoms. You can't test randomly because a negative test tells you nothing about a person without possible symptoms and exposure history. This is why symptoms are key to testing as the worst the symptoms are usually a sign of a high viral load. The higher the viral load the more reliable the test results will be. All of this plays a part in how you allocate your resources. The USA does alot of tests because those tests are private. People are literally just walking in and doing rapid tests etc and going about their lives with no gov't medical intervention etc. That is just a number to the gov't. They are nothing but a statistic. There is no parallel health system. Hence they are being overwhelmed.

The cyclist and the national jamette would have infected those closest to them if they were to cause major community spread. That goes for anyone who is asymtomatic as well. They first need to infect close friends, relatives and work colleagues to have a chance at community spread. Not to mention frontline healthcare workers. As long as those people are not being infected then the reality for community spread is very low. The risks of surface contamination is actually very low.

the chain was broken yes, but those measures werent taken early enough. thats the biggest disagreement; that is when the lockdown should have been initiated. the only reason why the numbers looking good is cause u only tested a thousand people out of 1.4 million, and those were limited to those flying in in the middle of march. before that we had thermographic screening, which was inconsistent and quite frankly insufficent for the vast majority of persons.

our numbers are low, cause we have not gathered enough numbers.

i did contact the MoH to find out if they can release the figures of the respiratory deaths to date, early last week i think, and the person replied that i would have to go through the FOIA for that.
right now i on lock down mode, not really moving about, cause normally i open doors with my shirt, or push wiht my elbows or shoes. i eh reach that level of justice warrior yet to do a afra raymond and buss up the govt with ah FOIA. i just using the piecemeal figures they release to 'fabricate' a story.

[adnj]

Smash

We already broke the chain by limiting crowds, wearing masks and self isolating etc. So the virus literally can't spread. These were initiated early on before there would have even been community spread. That's the whole point. Our numbers are this low because the virus didn't get the chance to spread. That is why you use barrier methods.

Symptoms are irrelevant to disease spread and only important to understand a test result. ALL viral symtoms are similar. You can't tell what someone has just by their "symptoms". It could literally be any disease on the planet. That is why they are called "viral" symptoms. You can't test randomly because a negative test tells you nothing about a person without possible symptoms and exposure history. This is why symptoms are key to testing as the worst the symptoms are usually a sign of a high viral load. The higher the viral load the more reliable the test results will be. All of this plays a part in how you allocate your resources. The USA does alot of tests because those tests are private. People are literally just walking in and doing rapid tests etc and going about their lives with no gov't medical intervention etc. That is just a number to the gov't. They are nothing but a statistic. There is no parallel health system. Hence they are being overwhelmed.

The cyclist and the national jamette would have infected those closest to them if they were to cause major community spread. That goes for anyone who is asymtomatic as well. They first need to infect close friends, relatives and work colleagues to have a chance at community spread. Not to mention frontline healthcare workers. As long as those people are not being infected then the reality for community spread is very low. The risks of surface contamination is actually very low.

While random asymptomatic testing at this point is pointless since it's likely to turn up all negatives. We missed the boat big time by not testing people with symptoms.

My colleague was literally a prime candidate for testing, in direct contact with a person who's entire family later tested positive for Covid-19 in the US. Yet because his symptoms were mild he was refused testing. I have 3 similar stories like this.

MoH has done some of the least testing per million in the world. There's a metric I've seen some use internationally to determine how effective a country is handling Covid-19.

Normalize a score for TPM (tests per million) and mortality, ours is nearly 7% and TPM is one of the lowest in the world.

A partner of mine did it in excel and TT was in the bottom 15 of the world here. Now the cruise ship severely skews data so but even still, we aren't testing enough and right now several people admit on Facebook they not going in for testing unless they need hospitalisation.

That means over the last 3 weeks we are only testing the 5-10% of persons who actually need hospitalisation.

The MoH and the CMO know that 50-80% of our cases are undetected. That means there can be 200 people with Covid-19 out there, sheltering at home with their families and infecting them. Perhaps many cases being mild or asymptomatic. The hope is all these ppl will not be contagious when May 15th arrives.

That is the reason the lockdown is extended to May 15th, let's not kid ourselves.

I have to agree. Per capita testing is low because available testing resources have been limited along with the number of severe cases requiring intubation.

Lastest random testing studies indicates approximate infection rates of 4 to 17 times the case test rates in some locations.

Trinidad's current mitigation strategy is similar to Singapore's with the exception of widespread testing. Singapore had 12 deaths and 121,000 tests for a population of 5.7 million.

Irrespective of the outcomes of the current testing strategy, it is unlikely that limited, targeted testing can give you an accurate approximation of true inflection spread in nearly any circumstance.

No one knows how many have been infected in Trinidad. You can only conclude that the current deaths per million inhabits indicates that the population is currently affected less severely than many other countries.

[Gladiator]

498 pneumonia, respiratory deaths in four months in T&T

http://www.guardian.co.tt/news/498-pneu ... dd4411ed8f

Over the last four months, 498 people have died from pneumonia and respiratory illnesses in T&T, according to official figures obtained from the Registry of Births and Deaths at the Ministry of Legal Affairs.

Based on official figures obtained by Sunday Guardian from insiders at the ministry, from December 2019 to the end of March 2020--498 people from areas across the country died from these illnesses.

In December, while the country's borders were still open, 83 people died of pneumonia and 46 from respiratory illnesses, while in January the figure for pneumonia was 69, with 43 people dying from respiratory illnesses.

In February, 71 people died from pneumonia, while 39 died from respiratory causes.

In March, the number of people who died from pneumonia rose significantly to 96, while deaths from respiratory illnesses also rose in this month to 51 from the previous month.

Prior to this country's decision to start rigid testing for COVID-19 from March 6 this year and the country recording its first known positive case six days later on March 12, T&T recorded 351 deaths from pneumonia and respiratory illnesses from December 2019 to the end of February 2020.

During the month of March the country recorded four COVID-19 related deaths--March 25, 27, 28, and 31.

The first confirmed death in T&T--on March 25--came four days after Minister of National Security Stuart Young announced the complete closure of the country's borders and one day after Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley announced that the stay-at-home order would become effective March 30 to April 15. That order was later extended to April 30.

The PM has now announced that borders will remain closed until May 15, while stay-at home orders remain in effect until May 10.

On April 1, 2, 5, and 6 the country recorded its next four deaths. The total number of deaths due to COVID-19 in T&T still stands at eight.

The number of people who succumbed to pneumonia and respiratory diseases before the month of March, prior to this country testing for COVID-19, has raised concerns about whether they could have contracted COVID-19 or died from complications associated with the virus.

COVID-19 attacks a person's respiratory tract, through the airway of the mouth, nose, lungs, and throat. Your lungs may become inflamed, making it difficult to breathe. This can lead to pneumonia, which attacks your lungs, leading to possible death in some cases.

The COVID-19 pandemic has swept across the world since the outbreak in Wuhan, China, in December last year. The world has recorded over 2.5 million cases with over 180,000 plus deaths to date and with the figure still climbing.

Over the last three weeks, the Sunday Guardian reached out to Chief Medical Officer (CMO) Dr Roshan Parasaram via phone and text messages to shed some light on the issue. Parasram was questioned on whether there was a possibility that some of these people who died from pneumonia and respiratory illnesses prior to March could have been as a result of COVID-19.

It was explained that figures from December to March were related to deaths caused by pneumonia, respiratory illness, cancer, hypertension, and diabetes.

The questions posed to Dr Parasram dealt specifically with deaths from the first two illnesses.

But the CMO never responded despite repeated phone calls and text messages.

Meanwhile, data from the registry revealed that hypertension accounted for the highest amount of deaths in that four-month period--876 people died from this ailment.

Diabetes also accounted for the death of 789 people during the four-month period, while 454 people died from cancer during that period.

The Sunday Guardian sought some explanation about the figures on the deaths from pneumonia and respiratory illnesses from a virologist. Speaking on the condition of anonymity, he was only prepared to say, "If one looks back at deaths that have not come through the hospital system, even going back from let's say December to now, especially before the public got sensitised from COVID, maybe we could have found out that some of them could have been related to the coronavirus and therefore would not be included in the statistics."

Other medical experts contacted were unwilling to speak.

The Sunday Guardian had tried to obtain figures on the causes of death dating back to the beginning of January 2019, but senior insiders at the ministry said obtaining the information for such an extended period would be "difficult and time-consuming," considering some departments were operating "with skeletal staff" due to the pandemic.

From January to the end of March some 3,000 people in T&T had died of various illnesses, murders, accidents and natural causes.

Questions to Parasram:

Questions sent to Parasram included:

1. Is it possible that some of the people who died during the period of December to February from pneumonia or respiratory illnesses could have died from COVID-19 even when the country had not started testing for COVID-19?

2. Do you think there might have been possible cases that the medical fraternity did not know about during this period?

3.Were there any doctors or other medical personnel raising red flags about patients who came in with COVID-19 related symptoms who later died during this period that you may have been aware of?

Parasram: No abnormal deaths in the early part of the year

The CMO, however, had indicated about two weeks ago in a Ministry of Health daily press briefing that there were "no abnormal deaths in the early part of the year." But there was very little opportunity afforded thereafter for journalists to pose specific questions about this matter.

However, last Wednesday questions were raised by a journalist in relation to people who had died prior to March from respiratory illnesses and if there was the likelihood they could have died from COVID-19. Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh told the journalist that he would have to pass the inquiry on to the CMO, who was not present at the conference. There has been no response on the matter so far.

At last Thursday's Ministry of Health media briefing, Dr Parasram said that the Forensic Science Centre had recently submitted 70 post-mortem samples to the Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA) for testing but all had returned negative. This was a clear turnaround from the CMO’s position earlier this month when he stated that there would be no posthumous testing on anyone who died in the period even though they may have had risk factors.

2 California residents died of COVID prior to US Govt announcing the first death in its country

Last week Wednesday, a CNN story revealed that two people from California had died in February of COVID-19, three weeks before the United States officially reported its first case of COVID-19. The information was obtained after a second autopsy was performed on the bodies of the two individuals from the Santa Clara county.

Those two Californians, according to the county's chief medical officer Dr Sara Cody, did not have any travel history to China or any other location that would have possibly exposed them to the virus. Dr Cody told the media she presumed they may have caught the virus through community spread.

CARPHA's warning

In late February CARPHA, which is responsible for testing in this region, had issued a media release on their website warning the Caribbean that the importation of the Coronavirus into this region had been upgraded from low to "moderate to high."

CARPHA's executive director, Dr Joy St John stated that they were urging health authorities of CARPHA member states "to shift their mindset from preparedness to readiness and rapid response and continue to do all that is necessary to strengthen their capacity to respond to possible importation of cases."

She also encouraged all member states to increase their capacity for surveillance and have a national pandemic plan in place to deal with the evolving COVID-19 situation.

Prof of medicine and pulmonologist Terence Seemungal

Prof Terence Seemungal commenting on the 498 deaths said:

“While in health I have learned over the years that almost all things are possible I think that it is extremely unlikely that we had deaths due to COVID during those four months. Let me give two pieces of evidence that support my position here.

1. The first COVID-19 case in T&T was diagnosed around early March. We went to lock down shortly thereafter. If we had deaths prior to this first case, it would have been a sure indication of widespread disease in T&T. This would have led to far more deaths than we have seen and overload of our health facilities and ICUs regardless of lockdown. The fact that we have not seen this is clear evidence that we have diagnosed the cases correctly and locked down at the right time relative to the first diagnosed case.

2. The case of our North American neighbour. Their first case was diagnosed January 20 ,2020. Latest press reports have been that there were deaths in California in early Feb which are now attributed to COVID-19 – an indicator of undetected community spread. Look at the explosion of cases there and the overload of their health care system in spite of their lockdown. Compare this with our experience. Clearly we did not have any parallel level of community deaths or else that would have been the case here as well.

Bottom line, so far we have got it right! Let us hope it stays that way."

The top five cause of deaths in T&T between December 1, 2019-March 31, 2020 from the Registry of Births and Deaths

December 2019:

Hypertension-225

Diabetes-176

Cancer - 95

Pneumonia -83

Respiratory -46

January 2020:

Hypertension-215

Diabetes-182

Cancer - 83

Pneumonia -69

Respiratory-43

February 2020:

Hypertension- 195

Diabetes-230

Cancer-154

pneumonia- 71

respiratory- 39

March 2020:

Hypertension-241

Diabetes-201

Cancer-122

Pneumonia-96

Respiratory-51

Deaths by illness over a four-month period:

Hypertension-876

Diabetes -789

Cancer -454

Pneumonia -319

Respiratory-179

[maj. tom]

Before the conspiracy theorists arrive, are those figures unusual compared to the last 2 years in any 4 month period? The reporter couldn't get that info.

Prof. Seemungal says in the article that they're unlikely to be COVID-19 related deaths and explained why.

[Redman]

Well I read somewhere that NY saw a dynamic where the deaths that occurred under normal times decreased-while the COVID 19 deaths increased.

The thing is that if you are tested positive for C19 and walk outside and get run over-the death is recorded as C19 related.


The article continued to say that Italy also is bunching deaths into the C19 bracket as this affects funding received.


Its fuelling the POV that the actual results of the disease do not warrant the lock downs .

[adnj]

2 hours ago - Health

96% of 3,300 inmates with coronavirus were asymptomatic, survey shows


Axios


96% of 3,277 inmates in state prison systems in Arkansas, North Carolina, Ohio and Virginia who tested positive for the coronavirus did not show symptoms, Reuters reports.

Why it matters: The findings suggest that asymptomatic patients could be contributing to the spread of the virus at a far higher level than suspected, especially in prisons, which have proven to be a breeding ground for COVID-19 in the U.S.

This is especially noteworthy because health officials have prioritized testing and surveillance for people that show symptoms. 4,693 total tests were conducted.

“It adds to the understanding that we have a severe undercount of cases in the U.S.,” Dr. Leana Wen, adjunct associate professor of emergency medicine at George Washington University, told Reuters.

The big picture: Two prisons — Marion Correctional Institute in Ohio and Chicago's Cook County jail — are among the largest known sources of coronavirus infections in the U.S.

At Marion, close to 95% of the 2,028 inmates who tested positive for the virus were asymptomatic, according to Reuters.



https://www.reuters.com/article/us-heal ... SKCN2270RX

[sMASH]

hadda get some hard figures for the previous years to see how this year stacks against it. if the last few years, u get within a 10% difference to these figures, i wouldnt really say we have a problem.

[EFFECTIC DESIGNS]

When I said we beat this and we flatten the curve last week, all the arm chair experts on tuner said I didn't know what I was talking about.

Turns how nobody here had a clue and our local health experts were correct all along

whooooda thunk it?

[Gladiator]

The assumption is that someone could not have died from COVID19 in Trinidad before the 12th March when the first case was confirmed. Is it totally improbable that someone could have had the virus and died before we had the capabilities for testing for it... or even knew about it (was taking it on)

We always have very high traffic coming through the airport. If everything honky dory then why the Govt setting up several COVID19 step down facilities over the country. They just took over the UWI Debe campus which has space for a couple hundred...

I don't know, but they being overly cautious and that raises flags with the public... at least the non sycophant public.

[MaxPower]

[SMc]

UWI has a Debe campus!- they only get a KFC 10-odd yeas ago. I need t get out more

[EFFECTIC DESIGNS]

Amazing how the tuner arm chair experts have been wrong for the 10000th time yet again

They know nothing when compared to the EXPERTS.

I remember I was laughed out of town when I said we have flattened the curve and we are in the clear, now other bodies around the world are congratulating us on a job well done.

Allyuh should go on allyuh knees and thank Lord Rowley for saving allyuh life and the country.

Meanwhile Kamla and Coonilal drinking rum while suggesting that people should riot until the government reopen the country. The problem is NOT the UNC the Problem is Kamla and Coonilal along with Gopeesingh and the rest of the Cabal

[aaron17]

Amazing how the tuner arm chair experts have been wrong for the 10000th time yet again

They know nothing when compared to the EXPERTS.

I remember I was laughed out of town when I said we have flattened the curve and we are in the clear, now other bodies around the world are congratulating us on a job well done.

Allyuh should go on allyuh knees and thank Lord Rowley for saving allyuh life and the country.

Meanwhile Kamla and Coonilal drinking rum while suggesting that people should riot until the government reopen the country. The problem is NOT the UNC the Problem is Kamla and Coonilal along with Gopeesingh and the rest of the Cabal

Lord?lol ...becoming religious I see.