(Trinidad Guardian) Four more people have died of complications related to COVID-19, as confirmed by the Ministry of Health yesterday.
The number of deaths in Trinidad and Tobago now stands at 43, with 35 of those occurring in the last four weeks—21 since the month of September began.
The recent fatalities were described by the Health Ministry as two elderly males and two adult males. Three of them had co-morbidities.
Wednesday was the only day for the month so far that at least one death was not recorded.
A total of 2,698 people have now tested positive for the virus locally since March 12.
The Ministry announced 110 cases yesterday taking the number of active cases to 1,900.
According to the Ministry’s 10 am update, 1,570 patients have been home isolated under the continuous monitoring of the respective County Medical Officer Health (CMOH) offices.
Three of yesterday’s confirmed cases were in Tobago and six were from those housed at the Police Training Academy.
On Wednesday, 87 of the police recruits also tested positive for the virus. Speaking at the Ministry of Health’s virtual press conference on Wednesday when the first batch of positive recruits was announced, Technical Director of the Ministry of Health’s Epidemiology Division Dr Avery Hinds said: “Forty-three of these persons were actually in the Police Academy and therefore not out and about interacting with the public because they had already been identified as potentially having been exposed. They were tested and would be processed according to their clinical symptoms and their clinical requirements.”
The Ministry of Health, however, noted that the recent figures are not representative of a 24-hour increase as it included results from samples taken as early as August 29.
These delayed figures are the result of a backlog of samples which the ministry has been trying to clear.
While many citizens are affected by this, one Couva family was prevented from saying their final goodbye’s to a relative who died at a viral tent in the San Fernando General Hospital over two weeks ago.
On August 22, 53-year-old Deodath Nagessar visited the hospital to receive treatment for an injury he received a week earlier but passed while in the tent.
The body was not released to the family as the pending COVID-19 test result prevented an autopsy from being done.
However, the family received the negative result on Tuesday and the autopsy was conducted on Wednesday.
He is set to be cremated today.
