At a Press Conference on 5th December 2020, Prime Minister Keith Rowley announced a target date of 8th February 2021 was set for standard 5 primary school pupils to physically return to school. This target date also applied to secondary school students in forms 4 - 6.

The Prime Minister did warn the public at that time, however, saying that if they did not behave accordingly during the Christmas and New Year celebrations, this target date would not become a reality. Chief Med­ical Of­fi­cer, Dr. Roshan Parasram, previously said that the full im­pact of these cel­e­bra­tions may not be seen until the end of Jan­u­ary 2021.

As we are now approaching the target date set by the Prime Minister, it remains unclear whether these plans will proceed as the Ministry of Health is concerned about the rising COVID-19 cases in Trinidad and Tobago.

At the Ministry’s virtual Press Conference this morning (Wednesday 20th January 2021), Technical Di­rec­tor of the Min­istry’s Epi­demi­ol­o­gy Division, Dr. Av­ery Hinds, indicated that COVID-19 cas­es for 2021 are on an up­ward tra­jec­to­ry. ”The new cas­es per day are inch­ing up­wards. If you look at the num­ber of new cas­es per week, you’d see that in the last three com­plet­ed cal­en­dar or epi­demi­o­log­ic weeks. we’d have had a steady in­crease from 58 cas­es in the last week of 2020 to 82 cas­es in the first week of 2021 and 126 in this last com­plet­ed week.” Dr. Hinds noted that this is a con­cern­ing de­vel­op­ment and urged the pub­lic to avoid any gath­er­ings or con­gre­ga­tions.

At the same Press Conference this morning, CMO Dr. Parasram said Officials from both the Ministry of Health and Ministry of Education will meet on Thursday morning (21st January 2021) to dis­cuss the re-open­ing of schools. “We’re hav­ing a dis­cus­sion with the Min­istry - that’s the Min­istry of Health and Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion - called by the Ho­n­ourable Min­is­ter, on Thurs­day morn­ing to dis­cuss what is go­ing to hap­pen with the school situation.” The CMO did not give any fur­ther de­tails on this topic.

The cur­rent form of the Pub­lic Health Reg­u­la­tions was ex­tend­ed for a sec­ond time ear­li­er this week.

According to the CMO:

If a decision is made on Thursday as to whether schools will re-open on 8th February 2021, the Prime Minister may make the announcement this Saturday (23rd January 2021) at a Press Conference.

Schools have been closed since 14th March 2020, the day after the first COVID-19 case was confirmed in T&T.

[Source: T&T Guardian]

The Ministry of Health revealed in its daily 4pm update this afternoon (Wednesday 20th January 2021) that there is another unfortunate COVID-19 related death in Trinidad and Tobago, plus fifteen (15) additional cases. This represents a small 6.25% decrease in reported cases from yesterday. The latest death is an elderly female with co-morbidities.

The Ministry reported sixteen (16) cases yesterday. The country’s death toll now stands at 133. T&T’s confirmed cases now rises to 7,430, with 332 being active cases. A total of 6,965 patients have recovered from the virus to date.

The Ministry states that of the fifteen (15) new positive cases, one (1) is a recently repatriated persons. Further, the number of positive cases reported reflects the samples taken during the period 17th - 19th January 2021 and not the last 24 hours.

​In its latest update, the Ministry notes that four (4) persons have been discharged from public health facilities and there have been sixteen (16) recovered community cases. Recovered community cases refer to persons who were previously COVID-19 positive and in self-isolation at home, and subsequently met the discharge criteria and were released from self-isolation. ​

The Ministry also notes that there are currently forty (40) COVID-19 positive patients being treated at Hospitals:

• 25 at Couva.
• 9 at Caura.
• 1 at St. Ann’s.
• 5 at Scarborough Regional.

Among the patients at Couva, one (1) is in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU). There are also currently five (5) COVID-19 positive patients in step-down/transition facilities.

This is a developing story - refresh this page for updates.

The Ministry of Health held a virtual Press Conference at 11am this morning (Wednesday 20th January 2021) to update the public on the latest developments with COVID-19 in Trinidad and Tobago.

​Below are the key points discussed today, courtesy of TTT Live Online:

- Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Roshan Parasram, addressed ways in which the public can avoid COVID-19 misinformation, which include:

• Looking beyond the headlines and reading the full story.
• Double-checking the dates on articles to ensure that the information is current.
• Examining the evidence by verifying the information with other sources.
• Checking your biases.

- PAHO/WHO Representative to T&T, Dr. Erica Wheeler, gave an update on the COVAX facility and indicated that Government is proceeding with their plans and steps are being put into place to procure and prepare all materials and storage facilities in anticipation for the Pfizer vaccine.

- Dr. Wheeler also stated that Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine should be available to the Caribbean by March 2021 at the latest.

- The Chief Medical Officer, when answering a question, indicated that symptoms of the vaccine may include soreness at the injection site and lethargy for a day but also advised that people with severe allergies should NOT take the Pfizer vaccine because of the possibility of adverse reactions.

- Technical Director of the Epidemiology Division, Dr. Avery Hinds, expressed concern that the number of daily cases has been steadily increasing and the data was showing an upward trend. Doctor Hinds appealed to the public to avoid gatherings during this Carnival season and adhere to COVID-19 Regulations.

Watch the Press Conference below in its entirety.

[Source: TTT Live Online]

The Ministry of Health will be hosting a virtual Press Conference at 11am this morning (Wednesday 20th January 2021) to update the public about the latest developments with COVID-19 in Trinidad and Tobago.

The Ministry reported sixteen (16) cases yesterday. The country’s death toll currently stands at 132.

​Watch the live stream of the Press Conference below when it begins at 11am, courtesy of CCN TV6.

This is a developing story - refresh this page for updates.

The United States has reached yet another grim milestone. On Tuesday (19th January 2021) the confirmed COVID-19 death toll topped 400,000, on the eve before President-Elect Joe Biden is inaugurated as the country’s 46th President.

The milestone comes just over a month after the U.S surpassed 300,000 confirmed COVID-19 deaths (14th December 2020), and only seventeen (17) days since hitting 350,000 reported deaths (2nd January 2021), according to data collected by Johns Hopkins University.

The number of lives lost in the U.S could fill Madison Square Garden in New York City nearly twenty (20) times over and is roughly equivalent to the population of Tampa, Florida, or Tulsa, Oklahoma.

The 400,000 lives lost is more deaths than the number of U.S soldiers that died in battle during World War I, World War II and the Vietnam War combined, an analysis of data compiled by the Department of Veterans Affairs shows.

Globally, the virus has claimed more than 2 Million lives so far. The U.S accounts for approximately 19.5% of the World's COVID-19 related deaths and now top 24 Million total cases.

[Source: ABC News]

The Ministry of Health revealed in its daily 4pm update this afternoon (Tuesday 19th January 2021) that there are sixteen (16) additional COVID-19 cases in Trinidad and Tobago. This represents a 166.67% increase in reported cases from yesterday.

The Ministry reported six (6) cases yesterday. The country’s death toll currently stands at 132. T&T’s confirmed cases now rises to 7,415, with 338 being active cases. A total of 6,945 patients have recovered from the virus to date.

The Ministry states that the number of positive cases reported reflects the samples taken during the period 16th - 18th January 2021 and not the last 24 hours.

In its latest update, the Ministry notes that three (3) persons have been discharged from public health facilities and there have been four (4) recovered community cases. Recovered community cases refer to persons who were previously COVID-19 positive and in self-isolation at home, and subsequently met the discharge criteria and were released from self-isolation.

The Ministry also notes that there are currently forty-two (42) COVID-19 positive patients being treated at Hospitals:

• 23 at Couva.
• 12 at Caura.
• 1 at St. Ann’s.
• ​6 at Scarborough Regional.

​Among the patients at Couva, two (2) are in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU). There are also currently five (5) COVID-19 positive patients in step-down/transition facilities.

This is a developing story - refresh this page for updates.