Ministry Of Health Virtual Media Conference - Monday April 20th 2020

KEY POINTS FROM THE MINISTRY OF HEALTH’S VIRTUAL MEDIA CONFERENCE – MONDAY APRIL 20TH 2020: - Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh expressed hope that a new week will bring new purpose and a change in attitude in many citizens. He implored non-essential workers to stay home to fight COVID-19. He said: “We do not want to regress. The plateauing of cases can change within four days. That is our future if we continue to ignore the directive to stay home.” - Minister Deyalsingh addressed what he called the “social media gremlins that are hard at work trying to confuse the population, spread misinformation and mischief.” He stated that someone hijacked the Ministry of Health’s letterhead and caused panic by including pharmacies and groceries in the new regulation related to hardware, electrical and plumbing supply stores which are now opening only on Mondays, Thursdays and Saturdays from 8am to 12 Noon. However, the Health Minister said pharmacies and groceries remain unaffected and are operating AS NORMAL. “It does not apply to pharmacies and groceries. Citizens of T&T will have access to the full gamut of health care, including pharmacies, will have full access to food, including supermarkets throughout. There is NO Closure Order for pharmacies and supermarkets and I urge the population to ignore that social media post.” - Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh said the 33 TT Nationals who were under mandatory quarantine in Barbados will receive the necessary medical care when they return home. - The Ministry of Health is ensuring that supplies at the Blood Bank are consistent with the needs of the country at this time. - Technical Director of the Health Ministry's Epi-Division, Dr. Avery Hinds, gave an update on the latest with COVID-19 in T&T. Samples Submitted For Testing: 1,357 Positive Samples: 114 Number of Deaths: 8 Number of Persons Discharged: 22 59 patients remain hospitalised for COVID-19. CAURA: 10 (Stable). COUVA: 49 (1 in HDU, 48 Ambulatory and Stable) SANGRE GRANDE STEP DOWN FACILITY: 25 - Dr. Hinds also presented five slides showing the latest data on COVID-19 patients in T&T (Demographics, Laboratory Confirmed COVID-19 Cases And Contacts etcetera). He said Contact Tracing has led to identifying 715 people who came into contact with persons who tested Positive for COVID-19 and these 715 people are now being monitored. He noted that not all contacts live in close proximity to the Positive case. - Minister Deyalsingh assured that every health care worker will receive appropriate Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), depending on the nature of their job. He explained that distribution of PPE to health care workers was recently put under the direction of the CEOs of the RHAs to ensure all health care workers receive the appropriate PPE in relation to their level of exposure to COVID-19 (High Exposure, Medium Risk, Low Risk). - Surveillance testing to be ramped up "in a most significant way" by next Monday. Training is currently underway for personnel. T&T has 1,750 extraction kits for this kind of testing. 10,000 more kits are expected in T&T soon. - T&T is not depending solely on Cuban nurses to staff ICUs here. Local nurses are being trained in ICU management at this time.