Chief Medical Officer (CMO), Dr Shamdeo Persaud on Thursday confirmed that six new cases of COVID-19 were detected, thus raising the total cases to 215 to date.
While delivering the daily update, he announced that another 84 tests were conducted within one day, but only six of those samples returned positive results. The number of deaths remains at 12.
The total number of tests done is 2355 with 2140 persons being negative. There have been 108 recoveries.
In the various quarantine facilities, 95 persons are being presently treated with 16 persons in institutional quarantine and one patient in the COVID-19 Intensive Care Unit (ICU).
Chief Medical Officer, Dr Shamdeo Persaud
However, it was indicated that the July-August vacation period for students will commence in just a few days and many may venture outdoors.
The CMO advised parents to find alternative activities to keep their children indoors this year, in order to protect their families.
“We empathise with you, because the pandemic has curtailed most of their outdoor activities, the most important being that they have been unable to attend school. The upcoming holidays will be challenging as you try to keep them engaged, but most importantly safe. We, therefore, ask you to start thinking ahead of innovative activities that are just as fun which can be conducted within the confines of your residence. Keeping your children safe is a priority and we hope that you remain committed to this task,” he suggested.
The pandemic has not affected healthcare services to antenatal mothers, as clinics remain open and persons can be seen by doctors at these facilities. It was highlighted that they are working to ensure early detection and diagnosis.
Dr Persaud informed, “Our child-health clinics and antenatal clinics continue to function as our children’s vaccination and growth monitoring is an ongoing process. Our antenatal mothers still need to be seen and examined at clinic for us to ensure that the pregnancy period is safe and without complications. If complications arise, we would like to diagnose these in a timely manner so that management can be initiated early.”
Parents of children who are due for their HPV vaccines are asked to seek this service at the nearest health centre. These children should be within the age range of nine to 16 years of age.
On Wednesday, the CMO had acknowledged the fact that repatriates were providing inaccurate information to health officials upon their return. This time around, Dr Persaud clarified that the publication of their names will help in tracking the disease across the country.
“Please note that the publication of your names is not designed to embarrass you, but is a part of our surveillance activities which help us to track this disease, so that the management can be more effective. So, we ask you to cooperate with the health officials, whose work is doubled when they call and are unable to follow up with you,” he expressed.
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), the total number of cases is 9, 129,146 with 473,797 deaths. In the Region of the Americas, the number of cases is 4,507, 006 with 226,504 deaths.
