Trinidad's Health Care System Close to Collapse

Trinidad and Tobago’s health care system is close to collapse after a sweeping and steady climb of its COVID-19 numbers since mid-March, with 11 deaths recorded in the last two days pushing the deaths to 185 in total.

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The country’s Ministry of Health said that the healthcare system could collapse in 10 days should the cases and hospitalizations continue at the current rate.

Health Minister Terrence DyalSingh gave a cautionary announcement that if the high case levels continue, the hospitals would “not have space.”

Principal Medical Officer Maryam Abdool-Richards warned that it would also start to impact the regular health care system if the spike trend continues.

“Given the increasing number of cases on a daily basis, roughly the rolling average over the last seven days is somewhere in the vicinity of 191 cases per day; approximately ten percent of cases would require hospitalization and a hospital bed,” Abdool-Richards said.