(Trinidad Express) Trinidad and Tobago has experienced its deadliest day of the Covid-19 pandemic to date, with a record 28 new deaths being recorded yesterday.
Among the deceased is a child.
The Ministry of Health reported the deaths in its daily update yesterday evening.
The child, the ministry said, was male. No specific details were given on his age or whether he had any underlying medical conditions.
The child’s death came just one week after Principal Medical Officer of Health Dr Maryam Abdool-Richards disclosed that there had been an increase in children requiring hospitalisation due to Covid-19.
She said the ministry had started seeing children in need of hospitalisation in September. At the time, there were five children receiving treatment in hospital, three of whom had to be transferred to the Intensive Care Unit for ventilatory support and sedation. Abdool-Richards said then details about the children could not be given because of patient confidentiality.
In addition to the child, the ministry reported the deaths of 13 elderly men, eight elderly women, five middle-aged men, and one middle-aged woman.
One of the deaths, a 66-year-old woman, occurred in Tobago.
Sixteen of the deceased persons had multiple comorbidities, including a mix of diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, history of strokes, kidney disease, cancer and asthma. Four persons had a single comorbidity, either hypertension or asthma. Eight persons had no known comorbidities.
The 28 new deaths bring the overall death toll to 1,947 and Tobago’s death toll to 109.
So far this month, 251 people have died from the virus. Of those, 97 deaths have occurred in the last week alone.
T&T also saw another grim record yesterday, with 510 people currently hospitalised for Covid-19 treatment. This is the highest number of people that have been hospitalised at one time since the start of the pandemic.
Of the 96 patients at Couva Hospital, 25 are in the intensive care unit (ICU) and 24 are in the high dependency unit (HDU). Four patients are in the Covid-19 ICU at the Scarborough General Hospital in Tobago.
The ministry also reported another 592 newly confirmed cases of the virus yesterday.
