HEALTH Minister Terrence Deyalsingh on Monday rejected claims by the Opposition UNC that there is a shortage of oxygen supplies at public health facilities.

Speaking in the House of Representatives, Deyalsingh said, "I can say categorically that those reports are patently untrue."

At the Point Fortin Hospital, Deyalsingh said, "We have five 220-cubic-foot cylinders that produce 220 standard cubic feet (scf) per hour.

"At the Arima Hospital, we have one massive 220..2,220-cubic-foot cylinder that produces oxygen every 90 minutes."

He said Tobago is producing its own oxygen at the Scarborough Hospital and the Roxborough Hospital. Deyalsingh explained that Massy Gas Products (Trinidad) Ltd normally supplies three million scf to the public health system.

"For the month of April, they did do that."

At that time, Deyalsingh said he asked the company to go up to a 50 per cent reserve capacity.

For the first three weeks of this month, Deyalsingh said, "We have consumed over 25 per cent more oxygen than we did in April. We will consume, at the end of May, roughly $4.2 million worth of oxygen."

He reiterated,"There is absolutely no oxygen shortage in any of the public health care facilities throughout TT."

Deyalsingh also said the only covid19 variants that have been detected in Trinidad and Tobago are the UK and Brazilian variants, as determined by the analysis of 504 samples by the Caribbean Public Health Agency (Carpha) and UWI since last December.

He added that Carpha and UWI "are also expanding to try to some surveillance testing across the population.

"We have put the UWI in touch with Public Health England (England's executive agency of the Department of Health and Social Care) to boost up their capacity to do more testing for variants."

He rejected UNC's claims later in the sitting about a spike in yellow fever. Deyalsingh said it is public knowledge that there has been no case of yellow fever in humans in TT since 1979.

He explained routine yellow fever vaccination is done in children between the ages of one and two, and the average uptake is 95 per cent annually. For the first quarter of this year, Deyalsingh said 3,533 yellow fever vaccines were administered "for a quarterly target population of 3,711."

In February, he continued, there were isolated cases of yellow fever "being reported in the counties of St Andrew, St David and Moruga/Mayaro in the local monkey population, and not in the human population."

Deyalsingh said his ministry's insect vector control division took measures to deal with this matter to ensure the safety of animals and reduce the risk of transmission. He added there is no evidence of transmission of yellow fever from rural to urban areas.

The post Deyalsingh: No oxygen shortage in public health system appeared first on Trinidad and Tobago Newsday.

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