Trinidad and Tobago Monday recorded the death of a baby from the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic as health authorities also warned that seven maternal virus –related deaths have been recorded here since the start of the year.
The Health Ministry in its latest bulletin said that the newborn girl was one of the 19 people who succumbed to the virus over the past 24 hours and that the death toll now stands at 2 281, since the first case was recorded in March last year.
The ministry said the people who died were 12 males and five females including the baby. It said that those who died had multiple comorbidities, including diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, asthma, kidney disease, obesity, Parkinson’s, and a history of strokes.
According to the bulletin, Trinidad and Tobago recorded its second highest daily number of new cases, with 801 cases reported from samples taken between December 3 and 5. There are now 12 702 active cases and the number of positive cases since March last year is 75 935 cases, of which 60 947 people have recovered.
The release said 89.8 per cent, or 6 408 of 7 134 patients, of those in the parallel healthcare system were unvaccinated. There are 509 people in hospitals, 101 in state quarantine facilities, and 11 210 in home self-isolation.
Meanwhile, the Director in the Directorate of Women’s Health, Dr Adesh Sirjusingh. Reported Monday that seven maternal deaths of which four were from COVID-19 have been recorded since the start of the year, representing an increase in maternal fatalities locally which, since 2017, stood at roughly four.
He told the virtual Ministry of Health news conference that 1 002 pregnant women contracted the disease locally as of December 3, and that the majority of these infections, 944, occurred this year. A total of 279 of these cases were recorded since October, during this third wave of infections.
Dr Sirjusingh added that there have been four instances of transmission from a COVID-19 positive mother to the child. Outside of these instances, he said there have been several occasions where COVID-19 led to complications in pregnancy such as preterm births and stillbirths.
Sirjusingh reminded women that being pregnant places them at high-risk for an adverse outcome from COVID-19 which is why it is important they get vaccinated. He said the majority of the cases of pregnant women contracting COVID-19 were among the unvaccinated.
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