COVID-19 in Trinidad & Tobago (Local Updates & Discussions Only)

[redmanjp]

why go get tested for mild disease tho

Because not everyone will have it mild. With the high number of infections hospitals will still be busy treating ppl who need oxygen. And you will be walking around sneezing and coughing on old ppl and younger ppl with health issues who would end up there. It's not all about you.

[Dohplaydat]

The next week or 2 we would be in the thousands per day range. Almost 20000 in isolation plus maybe another 50000 contacts or so on quarantine means a large part of the workforce is at home.

Deaths are decreasing which is a good thing.

It is for now but many lesser vaccinated countries do eventually see a death rate count similar to Delta.... mainly due to the number of persons infected.

The peak is relatively quick though and I expect things to normalize some what by March.

[MaxPower]

Deaths are decreasing which is a good thing.

I guess.

Once there are no deaths, the amount of cases won’t matter.

But hear na, Master Rowley taking ALL the credit when the death count goes to zero.

Where is Kamla though? Probably beating up how KCR got lucky with the timing.

[paid_influencer]

why go get tested for mild disease tho

Because not everyone will have it mild. With the high number of infections hospitals will still be busy treating ppl who need oxygen. And you will be walking around sneezing and coughing on old ppl and younger ppl with health issues who would end up there. It's not all about you.

understood, but if you have flu-like symptoms, you supposed to isolate anyway regardless of testing.

mild disease I would just ride it out at home.

[widdyphuck]

why go get tested for mild disease tho

Because not everyone will have it mild. With the high number of infections hospitals will still be busy treating ppl who need oxygen. And you will be walking around sneezing and coughing on old ppl and younger ppl with health issues who would end up there. It's not all about you.

understood, but if you have flu-like symptoms, you supposed to isolate anyway regardless of testing.

mild disease I would just ride it out at home.

mildXbox.jpg

You getting paid while at home...

[daring dragoon]

1081/9

FB_IMG_1643486887666.jpg

Interesting......seems like omicron is bad after all....

are we sure its omicron variant or just the last of the christmas /new year delta limes checking in?

[daring dragoon]

High-risk people should consider wearing two face masks to guard against contracting the omicron variant, two Hong Kong virus experts said, as the city attempts to stamp out an outbreak of the highly infectious virus.

Wearing a cloth mask over a surgical mask can “tighten the gap not covered by the surgical mask, which is often very loose,” said David Hui, a professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong and a member of the government’s scientific committee. He recommended the measure for high-exposure groups, people in outbreak areas and on public transport.

Yuen Kwok-Yung, a renowned microbiologist, told local radio that people with chronic diseases or who can’t receive Covid vaccines, along with high-risk workers such as airport staff, could also consider double-masking, which helps boost filtering capabilities.

Which face mask is best against omicron?

In mid-January, the CDC announced that loose-fitting cloth masks were not enough to protect against omicron. To give yourself the best shot against the variant, upgrade your cloth masks and instead choose a high-filtration mask that fits closely to your face.

“You really want to be sure you’re creating a seal around your nose and mouth, which is what goes the furthest toward keeping you safe,” Dr. Gordon says.
Standard N95 respirators

These masks, which are used in healthcare settings, fit very close to your face and are especially efficient at air filtration, filtering out about 95% of airborne particles.

The National Institute for Occupational Safety & Health (NIOSH) shares a list of approved brands and models — but be sure you’re buying standard N95s, not surgical N95s. Though they offer similar levels of protection to everyday wearers, standard N95s are slightly less fluid-resistant and are not cleared by the FDA to be used as surgical masks.

“The CDC still recommends that surgical N95s are prioritized for healthcare workers, as they’ve been in short supply since the start of the pandemic,” Dr. Gordon says. “So if you don’t work in a healthcare setting, it’s best to leave these masks for those who do.”
KN95 respirators

These masks are also designed to fit close to your face, forming a little tent over your mouth and nose that makes it easy to breathe while you’re wearing them.

They, too, filter out about 95% of airborne particles, but they’re not regulated by NIOSH; rather, they’re regulated by the Chinese government.

[paid_influencer]

You getting paid while at home...

is the people that cyar afford to isolate that ducking testing.

I would be isolating regardless of testing. different scene

[De Dragon]

High-risk people should consider wearing two face masks to guard against contracting the omicron variant, two Hong Kong virus experts said, as the city attempts to stamp out an outbreak of the highly infectious virus.

Wearing a cloth mask over a surgical mask can “tighten the gap not covered by the surgical mask, which is often very loose,” said David Hui, a professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong and a member of the government’s scientific committee. He recommended the measure for high-exposure groups, people in outbreak areas and on public transport.

Yuen Kwok-Yung, a renowned microbiologist, told local radio that people with chronic diseases or who can’t receive Covid vaccines, along with high-risk workers such as airport staff, could also consider double-masking, which helps boost filtering capabilities.

Which face mask is best against omicron?

In mid-January, the CDC announced that loose-fitting cloth masks were not enough to protect against omicron. To give yourself the best shot against the variant, upgrade your cloth masks and instead choose a high-filtration mask that fits closely to your face.

“You really want to be sure you’re creating a seal around your nose and mouth, which is what goes the furthest toward keeping you safe,” Dr. Gordon says.
Standard N95 respirators

These masks, which are used in healthcare settings, fit very close to your face and are especially efficient at air filtration, filtering out about 95% of airborne particles.

The National Institute for Occupational Safety & Health (NIOSH) shares a list of approved brands and models — but be sure you’re buying standard N95s, not surgical N95s. Though they offer similar levels of protection to everyday wearers, standard N95s are slightly less fluid-resistant and are not cleared by the FDA to be used as surgical masks.

“The CDC still recommends that surgical N95s are prioritized for healthcare workers, as they’ve been in short supply since the start of the pandemic,” Dr. Gordon says. “So if you don’t work in a healthcare setting, it’s best to leave these masks for those who do.”
KN95 respirators

These masks are also designed to fit close to your face, forming a little tent over your mouth and nose that makes it easy to breathe while you’re wearing them.

They, too, filter out about 95% of airborne particles, but they’re not regulated by NIOSH; rather, they’re regulated by the Chinese government.

Not quite. KN95 is not approved for US surgical use because they're a different standard, but the filtration is almost identical

[paid_influencer]

difference with KN95's and N95's is the fit.

N95's use head straps that seal the mask on the top and bottom. The seal continues from the nose bridge all the way down under the chin. My Auras have a chin-tab at the bottom to pull it tight.

KN95's use ear loops that may or may not be too big. Plenty people wearing KN95 extremely loose and massive gaps between mask and face (i.e., plenty unfiltered air getting in and out).

worst is Dr. Hinds wearing surgicals. He has a massive beard he refuses to cut. The beard pushes the mask out of the face and makes a seal impossible. Better than nothing, sure, but as somebody leading the response it does look bad.

as an aside, NIOSH N95's with exhale valves have better than surgicals or cloths, and safer for others around you. The little exhale valve itself is filtered and you don't have big gaps letting unfiltered air in and out (like surgicals or cloth masks do). Ideally, you'd wear one without an exhale valve but if you are doing labour intensive work, the NIOSH-certified N95's with exhale valves are a great option.

These findings show that FFRs with an exhalation valve provide respiratory protection to the wearer and can also reduce particle emissions to levels similar to or better than those provided by surgical masks, procedure masks, or cloth face coverings

https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/docs/2021-107/default.html

You can get NIOSH-certified N95 respirators most places that sells painting/hardware supplies, including Amazon or Home Depot in the US. Joe Biden even recently started giving them away for free at Walgreens, etc.

[adnj]

Some African nations:
Median age of about 18 years
5% vaccinated
10% tested positive
Low severe illness and death
80% have actually been infected

Africa may have reached the pandemic's holy grail

January 28, 2022

When the results of his study came in, Kondwani Jambo was stunned.

He's an immunologist in Malawi. And last year he had set out to determine just how many people in his country had been infected with the coronavirus since the pandemic began.

Jambo, who works for the Malawi-Liverpool-Wellcome Trust Clinical Research Programme, knew the total number of cases was going to be higher than the official numbers. But his study revealed that the scale of spread was beyond anything he had anticipated — with a huge majority of Malawians infected long before the omicron variant emerged. "I was very shocked," he says.

Most important, he says, the finding suggests that it has now been months since Malawi entered something akin to what many countries still struggling with massive omicron waves consider the holy grail: the endemic stage of the pandemic, in which the coronavirus becomes a more predictable seasonal bug like the flu or common cold.

In fact, top scientists in Africa say Malawi is just one of many countries on the continent that appear to have already reached — if not quite endemicity — at least a substantially less threatening stage, as evidenced by both studies of the population's prior exposure to the coronavirus and its experience with the omicron variant.

The Malawi mystery

To understand how these scientists have come to hold this view, it helps to first consider what the pandemic has looked like in a country such as Malawi.

Before the omicron wave, Malawi didn't seem to have been hit too hard by COVID-19. Even by July of last year, when Malawi had already gone through several waves of the coronavirus, Jambo says it appeared that only a tiny share of Malawians had been infected.

"Probably less than 10% [of the population], if we look at the number of individuals that have tested positive," says Jambo.

The number of people turning up in hospitals was also quite low — even during the peak of each successive COVID-19 wave in Malawi.

Jambo knew this likely masked what had really been going on in Malawi. The country's population is very young — it has a median age of around 18, he notes. This suggests most infections prior to omicron's arrival were probably asymptomatic ones unlikely to show up in official tallies. People wouldn't have felt sick enough to go to the hospital. And coronavirus tests were in short supply in the country and therefore were generally used only for people with severe symptoms or who needed tests for travel.

So to fill in the true picture, Jambo and his collaborators turned to another potential source of information: a repository of blood samples that had been collected from Malawians month after month by the national blood bank. And they checked how many of those samples had antibodies for the coronavirus. Their finding: By the start of Malawi's third COVID-19 wave with the delta variant last summer, as much as 80% of the population had already been infected with some strain of the coronavirus.

"There was absolutely no way we would have guessed that this thing had spread that much," says Jambo.

Similar studies have been done in other African countries, including Kenya, Madagascar and South Africa, adds Jambo. "And practically in every place they've done this, the results are exactly the same" — very high prevalence of infection detected well before the arrival of the omicron variant.

Jambo thinks the findings from the blood samples in Malawi explain a key feature of the recent omicron wave there: The number of deaths this time has been a fraction of the already low number during previous waves.

Less than 5% of Malawians have been fully vaccinated. So Jambo says their apparent resistance to severe disease was likely built up as a result of all the prior exposure to earlier variants.

"Now we have had the beta variant — we have had the delta variant and the original," notes Jambo. "It seems like a combination of those three has been able to neutralize this omicron variant in terms of severe disease."



https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandso ... holy-grail

[pugboy]

what was their death rates to reach this point though?

[paid_influencer]

Most important, he says, the finding suggests that it has now been months since Malawi entered something akin to what many countries still struggling with massive omicron waves consider the holy grail: the endemic stage of the pandemic, in which the coronavirus becomes a more predictable seasonal bug like the flu or common cold.

that is a myth, much like the actual holy grail.

covid just going to continue killing out vulnerable people in waves from now until forever. some waves will be worse than others when a particularly bad variant is circulating.

long-term, since nobody has long-lasting immunity to coronaviruses, we probably going to end up in something like three-phase current, but for covid variants, to keep a steady level of covid death in the community.

500px-Hawkins_Electrical_Guide_-_3phase_Elementary_6wire.jpeg (28.04 KiB) Viewed 1534 times

[paid_influencer]

what was their death rates to reach this point though?

article says the median age is 18.

what happened to all the old people lol

[st7]

Most important, he says, the finding suggests that it has now been months since Malawi entered something akin to what many countries still struggling with massive omicron waves consider the holy grail: the endemic stage of the pandemic, in which the coronavirus becomes a more predictable seasonal bug like the flu or common cold.

that is a myth, much like the actual holy grail.

covid just going to continue killing out vulnerable people in waves from now until forever. some waves will be worse than others when a particularly bad variant is circulating.

long-term, since nobody has long-lasting immunity to coronaviruses, we probably going to end up in something like three-phase current, but for covid variants, to keep a steady level of covid death in the community.

500px-Hawkins_Electrical_Guide_-_3phase_Elementary_6wire.jpeg

u does understand anything u does post or you does think you understand using abstract things?

[pugboy]

i recall sweden was the early adopter of this but later had to backpedal

what was their death rates to reach this point though?

article says the median age is 18.

what happened to all the old people lol

[SuperiorMan]

Most important, he says, the finding suggests that it has now been months since Malawi entered something akin to what many countries still struggling with massive omicron waves consider the holy grail: the endemic stage of the pandemic, in which the coronavirus becomes a more predictable seasonal bug like the flu or common cold.

that is a myth, much like the actual holy grail.

covid just going to continue killing out vulnerable people in waves from now until forever. some waves will be worse than others when a particularly bad variant is circulating.

long-term, since nobody has long-lasting immunity to coronaviruses, we probably going to end up in something like three-phase current, but for covid variants, to keep a steady level of covid death in the community.

500px-Hawkins_Electrical_Guide_-_3phase_Elementary_6wire.jpeg

u does understand anything u does post or you does think you understand using abstract things?

[paid_influencer]

okay, st7. here's the thing I don't understand. why do people think covid will become like the common cold. small pox never became less deadly. neither did measles. nor polio. why would covid magically become like the common cold.

[redmanjp]

why go get tested for mild disease tho

Because not everyone will have it mild. With the high number of infections hospitals will still be busy treating ppl who need oxygen. And you will be walking around sneezing and coughing on old ppl and younger ppl with health issues who would end up there. It's not all about you.

understood, but if you have flu-like symptoms, you supposed to isolate anyway regardless of testing.

mild disease I would just ride it out at home.

mildXbox.jpg

Another reason for testing is that once u test positive it triggers contact tracing. So even if u isolate but don't test everyone u came onto contact with for the 2 days prior would not know they were exposed and would continue going about their business and would continue the chain of infections.

And u may not think that affects u till u have a medical emergency while hospitals full of the same covid patients u infected.

[gastly369]

Anyone bring in n95 mask from amazon via skybox? Any issues?
Ah not able with local no name chit no approvals mask at 300% markup

[redmanjp]

okay, st7. here's the thing I don't understand. why do people think covid will become like the common cold. small pox never became less deadly. neither did measles. nor polio. why would covid magically become like the common cold.

With omicron is has already mutated to become less severe. Usually that's what they expect viruses to do. The 1918 pandemic flu still exists today in some form byt it isn't killing out ppl like in 1918. Hopefully it mutates more to become no more pathogenic than the flu or cold.

Also more ppl overtime will get immunity either by vaccination or recovery from infection. Lots of ppl getting omicron now but getting immune to other previous strains like Delta so Delta can't spread anymore and is disappearing everywhere omicron has passed through. We not at that stage yet so we have to remain cautious for a few weeks but we will get there soon.

[redmanjp]

Even after the Omicron wave passes we should still continue vaccination which at least would give us T cell immunity. This won't prevent infection but will prevent severe cases so if another more severe variant pops up just like Delta then we ready.

[hover11]

okay, st7. here's the thing I don't understand. why do people think covid will become like the common cold. small pox never became less deadly. neither did measles. nor polio. why would covid magically become like the common cold.

With omicron is has already mutated to become less severe. Usually that's what they expect viruses to do. The 1918 pandemic flu still exists today in some form byt it isn't killing out ppl like in 1918. Hopefully it mutates more to become no more pathogenic than the flu or cold.

Also more ppl overtime will get immunity either by vaccination or recovery from infection. Lots of ppl getting omicron now but getting immune to other previous strains like Delta so Delta can't spread anymore and is disappearing everywhere omicron has passed through. We not at that stage yet so we have to remain cautious for a few weeks but we will get there soon.

Red,

You banking on omicron to be less severe, however, you forget viruses mutate and no one knows what the next mutation holds. It could be highly transmissible and worse than delta. Yes these are things that viruses do but everyday more and more we learn that SARS-COV-2 is not our typical virus and in a class of it's own. As we are still learning about such and it's effects.

[redmanjp]

That's why i said we should still continue vaccination when when the omicron wave wanes.

[paid_influencer]

Another reason for testing is that once u test positive it triggers contact tracing. So even if u isolate but don't test everyone u came onto contact with for the 2 days prior would not know they were exposed and would continue going about their business and would continue the chain of infections.

And u may not think that affects u till u have a medical emergency while hospitals full of the same covid patients u infected.

sure, but if I get symptoms i will assume it is covid and take appropriate measures (including informing anyone I had close contact with and isolating).

If the test won't change what I will do, the test has limited utility.

[paid_influencer]

Anyone bring in n95 mask from amazon via skybox? Any issues?
Ah not able with local no name chit no approvals mask at 300% markup

I did, however I ordered 8 boxes and got 7 boxes.

other reviews on amazon say people ordered a master-carton of 200 masks and get a big empty box with 1 mask inside.

[redmanjp]

Perhaps u will call ppl. Most ppl won't.

We should have had the same type of contact tracing app like the UK to make it easier to notify ppl rather than MOH staff having to make thousands of calls. With 20000 ppl being covid positive now MOH probably have to hire ah whole call centre.

[drchaos]

Even after the Omicron wave passes we should still continue vaccination which at least would give us T cell immunity. This won't prevent infection but will prevent severe cases so if another more severe variant pops up just like Delta then we ready.

Men talking bout sheit they have no freaking clue about like "T Cell immunity"

[paid_influencer]

onus should be on the individual to do the contact tracking. I think most countries made that the policy now.

[gastly369]

Anyone bring in n95 mask from amazon via skybox? Any issues?
Ah not able with local no name chit no approvals mask at 300% markup

I did, however I ordered 8 boxes and got 7 boxes.

other reviews on amazon say people ordered a master-carton of 200 masks and get a big empty box with 1 mask inside.

Ah shucks...
Ordering some 3m 9010 mask hope I get all...