CMC- Complacency around mask-wearing, travel, and indoor gatherings created a perfect opportunity for the new Omicron variant to spread rapidly throughout the Caribbean and increase deaths, with many places remaining just as they were before.

That’s according to the Director of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), Dr. Carissa F. Etienne.

“Reduced public health measures were insufficient to reduce the scale of this wave,” Dr. Etienne told a media briefing. “And now we’re dealing with the consequence: a rise in infections is driving a surge in deaths.”

According to PAHO, while still very high, COVID-19 infections declined by 31 percent last week, and deaths continued to rise by 5.6 percent.

“Undoubtedly, Omicron overtook us,” the PAHO director said. “Every time infections surge, there is a heavy toll for our families and communities,” with peaks in cases followed by rises in deaths three weeks later.

“COVID-19 is a preventable disease. And right now, we’re losing far too many lives,” she added. “As Omicron arrived, we didn’t use all the tools we had developed to slow the spread and prevent infections.”

PAHO said more than half of deaths in the latest surge occurred in people over 65. However, it noted that many others occurred among those yet to receive the COVID-19 vaccine, and unvaccinated people of all ages still fill up hospitals and beds in intensive care units.

“Omicron has shown that the vaccines we have at hand can protect most of us from severe illness and death,” Dr. Etienne said.

To ensure more equitable access, PAHO said its Revolving Fund has now delivered 100 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines to 33 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean in coordination with COVAX.

The PAHO director thanked donors for contributing 30 percent of the 100-million dose milestone. She urged countries “to focus on filling in critical gaps in vaccination coverage” to ensure that at least 20 million more people are fully vaccinated, particularly high-risk groups.

“We won’t overcome this pandemic unless we protect these groups and then go beyond to cover everyone who is eligible,” she said.

Need quicker response to keep pace

Dr. Etienne also highlighted that countries must be vigilant about implementing public health measures quickly.

She said they must adjust hospital systems to accommodate new surges while ensuring health care workers have the tools they need to treat COVID-19 patients safely.

“We need to activate our responses more rapidly to keep pace with the current wave and stay ahead of future surges of this very fast, very serious virus,” Dr. Etienne urged.

The PAHO director said With up to 202 people dying every hour due to this latest surge, “inaction is not an option.” She stated that countries of the Americas, including the Caribbean, reported 3.3 million new cases and more than 34,000 COVID-19 related deaths.

Dr. Etienne said in North America, the United States recorded the highest number of deaths in the sub-region – 17,000.

She said countries in Central America and the Caribbean reported a surge in COVID-19 deaths, as well as an increase in hospitalizations, reaching 19 percent in some countries and territories of the Eastern Caribbean.

In South America, the PAHO director said deaths in Brazil reached the highest numbers ever, setting a record for this wave.

CMC/

The Trinidad and Tobago Electricity Corporation (T&TEC) has apologized for a more than 12-hour power outage in Trinidad that severely disrupted life.

The blackout caused water shortages, traffic gridlock, early closure of businesses, and inconvenienced mobile and land telecommunication devices users. Normality has returned to the country following the lengthy electricity blackout.

T&TEC says a fault on the Gandhi Village/Union Estate 220 KV line resulted in system instability and caused all the generating machines operated by Independent Power Producers to trip. As a result, the devices at Trinidad Generation Unlimited went into shutdown mode leading to a loss of supply to all customers in Trinidad.

The sister isle of Tobago was not affected by the power blackout.

T&TEC’s general manager Kelvin Ramsook said while they could identify the faulted location, they were still investigating the reason.

“We have never had this situation occurring for many years, and all four generating stations are separated, and we are having challenges getting the capacity back onto the grid and interconnection thereafter,” he said.

Public Utilities Minister Marvin Gonzalves, who has promised an independent investigation into the incident, says he will make recommendations to Cabinet to ensure that another such situation does not occur as he apologized to the country “for this major disruption and inconvenience.”

While he praised T&TEC workers for “going out of their way and collaborating with independent power producers to bring electricity back, he noted that what transpired has exposed the vulnerabilities on the electrical grid.

Blackout affected water, mobile, and landline services

The Water and Sewerage Authority said most of its treatment facilities and booster stations were also severely affected and warned it might take 24 to 72 hours for the supply to normalize to some affected areas.

Mobile users were also affected by the situation even though the two primary providers, B Mobile and Digicel, kept communication running through their cell towers.

Acting Police Commissioner, McDonald Jacob, said that police deployed officers to ensure the safety of citizens amid reports of robberies and other criminal activities.

Many people flocked to supermarkets to purchase candles and batteries as it became clear that the blackout could last for several more hours.

CMC/