Gopeesingh: Covid-19 Hell in T&T – No Testing, More PNM Lies
The Prime Minister’s statement yesterday that his Government began preparations for the dangerous Covid-19 pandemic since January has now proven to be a deliberate, naked misrepresentation of the truth.
It’s also an admission of serious and gross incompetence and pure hypocrisy, since, three months later, all we see is the Government’s complete lack of planning, preparedness and operationalization of any conclusive plan to battle the Coronavirus crisis that is currently destabilizing our country.
Further, every day that the Health Minister speaks, he spouts empty and confused promises to ‘ramp up testing.’ This, however, has not happened. Instead, the much-needed testing of citizens to stop the Covid-19 spread has been dreadfully and woefully inadequate.
Globally, between 10-20% of citizens tested in other nations are Covid positive. By international standards, therefore, we should have done nearly 10,000 Covid-19 tests by now in T&T. So far, however, we’ve done only 1000, with 100 being Covid positive.
Had we, in fact, increased our testing, results would have likely revealed some 1000 local Covid positive cases by now, since the more tests done, the more positives will be determined.
This is a stark testimony to the PNM Government’s deliberate manipulation of the true incidence of patients really testing positive by virtue of this very under-testing.
The Government’s ongoing claim of effectively managing the situation is nothing more than them attempting to fool and hoodwink the population, at the expense of citizens’ health and lives.
Minister Deyalsingh and his team seem intent on making false promises of more testing becoming available at various State labs— the Trinidad Public Health laboratory, the SFGH, and EWMC.
More untruths! The stark reality today is that no private labs have been accredited by the Health Ministry, while these three aforementioned State labs remain non-functional. CARPHA has further indicated that it knows nothing of any accreditation or certification of private labs.
CARPHA has now also found itself with very few sampling kits, and a private distributor this week had to provide it with 300 sampling kits for testing. The Health Minister’s promise of PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction) testing apparatus for the labs remains just that—a vain promise that is yet to materialize.
In the meantime, the country is falling into further economic and social woes, even as the clueless PNM Ministers continue with their brazen lies and arrogant refusal to accept much-needed help from the very learned Opposition UNC, and other interest groups.
This is life under the PNM as we know it. Never forget or forgive them for this dangerous mishap, and indeed, all their previous mismanagement of our country.
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