Updated @ 11.21 Friday 16 July 2021
Prime Minister Dr Ralph Gonsalves spoke to NEWS784 about his statement pertaining to the Delta Variant being present in some regional countries including Trinidad.
Gonsalves on Friday 16 July, told this publication he would have ascertained the wrong information.
“I realized your publication carried an article on my statement, I did not know that the Minister of Health in Trinidad had spoken about it. I can tell you now that I was misinformed”.
Earlier publication Jul 15, 2021, at 22:30
In an interview with Loop News, Trinidad and Tobago’s Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh has refuted the claim made by St Vincent’s Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves that the Delta Variant is present in the twin-island state.
According to the CDC, the Delta Variant, also known as B.1.617.2, can spread more quickly. The strain has mutations on the spike protein that make it easier for it to infect human cells.
On the Round-table discussion on VC3 on Wednesday, Prime Minister Gonsalves said, “You know, what worries people, and we see it in Trinidad, we see it in Barbados, we see it in other countries, is the deadly variants like the Delta.”
Gonsalves also speaking on NBC radio on Wednesday stated, “And right at the moment you have some real deadly variants, like the Delta, and it’s in several countries in the region including Trinidad.”
On Thursday, July 15, Deyalsingh told Loopnews in an interview there was no evidence that the variant is present in Trinidad and Tobago. Deyalsingh had spoken with Prof Carrington of UWI, who does the genomic sequencing, according to the publication.
On July 12 at a Ministry of Health press conference in Port Of Spain Principal Medical Officer of Institutions, Dr Maryam Abdool-Richards said there was no presence of the variant in the Southern Caribbean island.
According to reports in the Guardian on July 1, Abdool-Richards also dispelled claims that the Delta variant of COVID-19 is in T&T.
Izzo Media’s article on the claim by Gonsalves shed light on the Brazilian variant P1 which is present in Trinidad and Tobago, and which was detected in five samples tested on April 26.
The Trinidad and Tobago Ministry of Health report on Thursday, July 15, said the nation had recorded 35, 428 positive cases and 969 deaths since the start of the pandemic.
