PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad (CMC) — Health authorities in Trinidad and Tobago reiterated the need for adhering to the health protocols as the country continued to register significant numbers of deaths and new cases of the coronavirus (COVID-19).

Chief Medical Officer, Dr Roshan Parasram, speaking at the Ministry of Health news conference on Wednesday, said that the virus is spreading across the country with a noticeable shift in the movement of the virus.

“What we are seeing differently as opposed to two months ago where County Caroni (in Central Trinidad) Victoria (north) and St Patrick (which covers the southwestern peninsula) would have been the counties with the largest number of cases.

“We are seeing roughly a spread, a similar spread among a large number of counties,” he said, including St George West, St George Central and St George East (areas around the capital) hovering around the 13, 14 per cent,” of cases he said.

He said St George Central accounts for the greatest number and while “it is a very small geographical area, it is very highly populated so 19.5 per cent is quite a very large number in that particular jurisdiction”.

The Chief Medical Officer also noted there has been a shift in the effects of the vaccine in people with comorbidities.

“A shift in the comorbidities has been noted. So, if you looked at previous graphs a couple months ago you would have seen diabetes and hypertension possibly accounting for the greatest portion of it. We see a dip in the number of persons with diabetes actually becoming positive and we have to look towards the immunisation strategy that we have in the country.”

He said a lot of the patients with diabetes have been getting their vaccines “and we have to keep a close eye on the statistics to see if it continues to drop”.

“It is a good sign because once you have diabetes together with COVID you tend to have complications and so we are seeing that diabetes numbers going down and we are also keeping a close eye on asthmatic patients which seem to be going up and we have to get those persons to get their vaccines as we go forward,” he added.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Health in its latest bulletin said that 16 deaths and 412 positive cases had been reported over the last 24 hours. It said also that 10 men and six women, all with co-morbidities succumbed to the virus. According to the ministry, the death toll now stands at 523 since the first case was reported in March last year.

The ministry said the number of new cases reflects the samples taken between the period May 26 to June 1. There are now 24,726 positive cases with 9,579 being active.

The ministry also disclosed that there are 462 patients in hospitals here, 109 people in state sanctioned quarantine and 8,558 in home isolation.