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Since Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley signalled the intention on Saturday to end the State of Emergency (SoE), concerns have been expressed over the decision to do so amidst a current spike in cases.Public health diplomat and epidemiologist with over 30 years experience, Dr Farley Cleghorn, shares a similar sentiment that the lifting of the State of Emergency may have been mistimed.Asked during an interview with Guardian Media about concerns that the move was mistimed, Cleghorn said: “I couldn’t disagree with that.”

One of the primary bases for his evaluation is the country’s low vaccination uptake along with a parallel healthcare system that may not be able to accommodate increased cases—especially in its Intensive Care Units (ICUs).“That is the kind of key question that a government has to ask itself when you’re saying we’re going to lift a State of Emergency- if we can tolerate more cases without overburdening the healthcare system?”He said in the United Kingdom the decision to reopen schools was feasible because they were able to tolerate the increase in cases while keeping the death rate low.

“But what I’m seeing in Trinidad is that doesn’t necessarily play out. Our death rates are still going up which means our health services delivery for people with COVID-19 is not as effective as it can be,” he said.Cleghorn said part of the problem is the latest trend of patients presenting too late to hospitals, which increases their chance of dying.For almost a month, the Ministry of Health has been warning that the ICUs across the parallel healthcare system has been almost at capacity on a daily basis.He attributed the current increase to the prominence of the more transmissible Delta variant among the population in combination with the return of secondary school students to face-to-face classes.

It's a shame that a country so prosperous at one time, that on a per capita basis, compared itself to the likes of Canada UK etc....and using the same parameters today we have on the stage for comparison Haiti, Costa Rica etc.....all the nonsense govt ministers say or preach to the WHO about we being the best, don't believe it.....We are only best at thieving....to prove my point did you see the empty room the PM attracted had when he addressed the climate conference, the world leaders were not interested in stupid superlatives.....They had seen it four years ago and laughed when another world leader made a stupid claim....

Get ready for the mother of all carnivals.
Infected masqueraders cannot wine and jam.
Jab if you want to jam.

THE Prime Minister warned on Saturday that the parallel health care system set up to deal with covid19,is reaching its breaking point.Dr Rowley issued this warning based on respective statements from Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh and Principal Medical Officer Dr Maryam Abdool-Richards that the national vaccination programme had stalled and occupancy in the parallel health care system was around 86 per cent, with most patients being unvaccinated.Addressing these and other issues at a news conference at the Diplomatic Centre in St Ann's, Rowley warned, "When the parallel health care system breaks, as it would,...if those curves (of covid19 cases) don't turn down...when it breaks...it will not break in the parallel health care system...it will rush to shore on the general health care system."

Should this happen, elective and non-elective health care for ordinary people will be compromised. Rowley said this could happen if people who are sick with covid19 wait too long to get treated, take the wrong advice from certain ill-informed entrepreneurs seeking to profit from the pandemic and then go to the hospital to be treated. He warned these people could contribute to "the collapse of the health care system."Rowley praised the medical personnel who have been doing their best to keep the public safe from covid19 and condemned attempts by anyone seeking to blame them for the increases in cases in recent times. "Nothing is furthest from the truth."

In this regard, the state of emergency (SoE) has fulfilled its purpose and will be lifted on November 17."It has been misrepresented in recent times that the SoE was the Government's way of bullying the country into doing what the Prime Minister wants...and the Government could do what it wants... and it was to fight crime...and we have murders."He reminded reporters the reason for the SoE was only to curb the spread of covid19 through limiting congregations of people in public places and reducing physical movement, while efforts were made to acquire covid19 vaccines for the population.
"We have done that. The SoE gave us breathing room... that and the vaccination programme."