COVID-19 TESTING SHAM
It is with grave concern that I am making yet another call to the Health Minister to come clean and inform the population of Trinidad and Tobago as to the TRUE state of the Health Ministry’s testing capacity of Covid-19 cases.
This is due to the fact that their official testing statistics have barely budged in weeks, and now call into question the following glaring inconsistencies:
• the low Covid positive numbers do not reflect the need for the Government’s drastic, prolonged national shutdown to combat the disease’s potential uncontrollable spread in T&T
• the Health Minister keeps warning the population about the impending devastating “first and second’ wave of the Coronavirus spread
• the Government must therefore be fully aware of the true state of the Coronavirus spread across the country
• the obvious conclusion, therefore, is that the State’s Covid-19 testing apparatus, equipment and capacity continue to be woefully lacking, and now, dangerously inadequate.
The Health Minister has clearly fallen down on the job and completely dropped the ball on his handling of this crucial medical crisis. Both Terrence Deyalsingh and the Chief Medical Officer now have a duty, as per their oaths of office as public servants, to tell the population exactly what is going on, especially since lives and the economic stability of citizens are at stake.
TESTING SHAM AND GIMMICKRY
The fact is that despite claiming that they were prepared to deal with the Coronavirus pandemic since January, three months later, the Government still has no conclusive and effective plan of action.
Over a week ago, the Health Minister promised to heed my call for increased testing via authorizing private medical labs to do so. To date, however, this has proven to be mere lip service. Instead, the Health Ministry’s Covid-19 official data demonstrates WIDESPREAD UNDER-TESTING, as evidenced by the following facts:
• on April 9, 987 tests had been completed
• by April 13, 1141 tests had been completed
• this means that in four days only 154 tests were completed
• the Health Ministry has put out three releases in the last 24 hours stating that Covid positive cases remain at 113.
• however, for ALL three releases, the tests numbers have remained at 1141
• therefore, the number of Covid positive cases did not increase because the number of tests did not increase
• global data shows that 10-20% of persons tested in other nations are Covid positive.
• T&T should have therefore done about 10,000 Covid-19 tests by now, instead of merely over 1000
• had the Health Ministry increased testing, in compliance with the WHO’s recommendation to so do, results would have reflected a considerably more accurate picture of the real incidence of local Covid positive cases
• the Health Ministry has also failed to enable private medical labs to do Covid-19 testing
• CARPHA, which remains the only authorized Covid-19 testing lab and serves the entire Caribbean, is now with limited sampling kits.
This state of affairs is unacceptable. It further begs the question as to whether the Government is deliberately keeping the Covid-19 at a minimum to project the false impression to the public that they are managing the crisis. I therefore call on the Health Minister and CMO to state:
1. How many actual unique individuals were tested by CARPHA and how many are retests, rather than the amount of samples? Many persons would have had retests on more than one occasion to determine eligibility to be released, so the official figures are misleading.
2. How many deaths with flu like symptoms that were never tested for Covid-19 have been recorded as suspected cases? Anecdotal evidence suggests that there are many patients at hospitals with Covid like symptoms who are not being tested, with some deaths as well.
3. What is the total number of deaths in our population from January 2020 to date as compared to the total number of deaths for the same period from January 2019 to April 2019? Has there been an increase in total deaths year on year?
4. From January 2020 to present day, how many deaths were recorded of persons who exhibited flu like symptoms but were refused Covid-19 tests? How many of these deaths were instead listed as lower respiratory tract infections, acute asthmatic attacks, pneumonia, or heart failure? The Regional Health Authorities must give that information to ensure transparency.
5. How did the Health authorities know that Covid-19 was not in T&T before March, 2020, when there was no testing taking place? To make such a claim is baseless, unscientific and misleading based on the fact that no Covid-19 testing was done during that period, as well as before, during and shortly after Carnival 2020.
WHERE HAS THE HSF RAINY DAY MONEY GONE?
It is further totally unacceptable that in the six weeks of the Coronavirus crisis in T&T, the Government continues to engage in farcical public relations gimmickry, even though our economy is facing a complete breakdown and our citizens’ lives and livelihoods remain in grave danger. The reality is that:
• the Government has used this crisis as an excuse to withdraw over $20 billion of taxpayers’ funds from the HSF and Development Loans Facility under the guise of dealing with the resulting economic and social fallout
• there is absolutely no evidence that the Government has indeed used the money to in fact do this
• instead, media reports note that Covid-19 patients are being forced to endure unsanitary, unhealthy and deplorable conditions at the various medical institutions and quarantine facilities
• many citizens are also now desperately crying out for financial help from the State as they now face joblessness and, in extreme cases, hunger.
• the State food cards and grants given out thus far are considerably insufficient to meet the needs of citizens
• the Salary Relief Grants are mired in bureaucracy and have failed to reach the majority of affected citizens in this time of desperate need.
The crucial question therefore remains –where is this $20b of taxpayers’ money really going? Is it being used to fund other State projects in a crucial election year for the purpose of electioneering? The Government MUST account to the population as to how they have used this money.
DANGEROUS PNM DISTRACTIONS
Having consistently refused the offers of help from the learned medical experts in the Opposition UNC and several other stakeholders, the Government now appears to be on a campaign of distraction. This as the Prime Minister and National Security Minister are now engaging in damaging and pointless battles with the media over their reporting of the issues facing T&T at this time.
I urge all citizens to not fall for these dangerous, gimmickry tactics. The Government owes us all accountability, transparency, effective service and equal distribution of our nation’s assets and monies during this crucial crisis. The time has come for them to do their jobs for once, since now, more than ever, our very survival as a nation is at stake.
OPPOSITION LEADER, THE HONOURABLE KAMLA PERSAD-BISSESSAR, S.C, MP
Tuesday, April 14, 2020