CMO: Rise in new Covid-19 cases for March ’cause for concern’

New Covid-19 cases have risen steadily each week for the month of March. Last week, 72 cases were confirmed, the week before saw 47 new cases. At the end of the first week of the month, 23 new cases had been confirmed.

Speaking at the Ministry of Health’s virtual media conference, chief medical officer Dr Roshan Parasram described the trend as a ‘significant increase’ in cases.

Photo: A boy’s temperature is taken to screen for Covid-19.

“It really needs to be viewed by the public and by the Ministry of Health as something of concern at this point in time,” he said.

He referenced the start of T&T’s ‘second phase’ when cases spiked in August last year to warn the public to adhere to public health ordinances.

“The number of cases escalated and the doubling time increased very quickly and we don’t want to get back to that early trajectory of August and September (2020),” he said. “So, we really need everyone to play their part. Follow the public health guidelines; they’re there to protect yourselves, your families and everyone in the population.”

Today, the ministry reported six new positive cases of Covid-19, which brings total confirmed infections since March 2020 to 7,861. There have been 106,667 people tested to date.

Eleven people are in hospital, while 292 are in state quarantine facilities. A further 133 people are under self-quarantine.

In total, 140 people have died from the disease. No new deaths have been recorded in two weeks.

More from Wired868
Dear Editor: T&T’s housing crisis—“what good is a degree if you’re paying 60% of your salary in rent?”

“[…] I stand here not just for myself, but for every young professional drowning in rent, every couple delaying marriage Read more

Josie vs Cancer: The high cost of medical war—why health insurance is your friend

Chapter 3: Paid and Paid ... This journey has taught me so many lessons—the importance of savings and insurance being Read more

Vaneisa: Censorship, without and within—the risk in rocking the boat

Little things add up—sometimes, they can sneak up insidiously so that we don’t see them coming until something happens. It’s Read more

Vaneisa: Dancing around our cocoa—T&T must revive sleeping economic giant

A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to speak with two truly inspiring members of the Cocoa Research Centre Read more

Vaneisa: Why not stop now? Bullying must not be ‘our way of life’

It’s a little bit uncanny that I had wanted to return to discussing trauma, particularly the impact of bullying, before Read more

Josie vs Cancer: Lumpectomy was a ‘no-go’; my entire left breast would have to go

Chapter 2 - Lost my Double Ds... Surgery day came faster than I thought it would. Read more

Check Also

Ex-Dial Dynamos standout, Ezekiel Ramdialsingh, murdered at 17

The Arima North Secondary football programme is in mourning after the murder of former standout …

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.