EPIDEMIOLOGIST Dr Avery Hinds has said there is no "one cause" for the upsurge in covid19 cases, as "the driving factors for the surge at that point in time are multifactorial."

He was responding to questions from the media during the Health Ministry's virtual press conference on Wednesday.

The Prime Minister is facing criticism over a statement he made in Parliament on Monday on what he believes caused an upsurge in cases – candlelight vigils "organised by the UNC" in February after the death of 23-year-old Andrea Bharatt. She was kidnapped and murdered.

On Monday, Dr Rowley said, "The only country I know of in the Caribbean where in the middle of the pandemic the Opposition organised gatherings called vigils ­– thousands of people for a month, trying to exploit the death of Andrea Bharatt – and you are asking me how we got here?

"What other country do you know of fighting covid alongside TT that the Opposition paid for/organised, night after night, thousands of people to do exactly what the virus wanted, which was to bring people together during a pandemic? They organised transport to bring people."

Asked if Rowley's statement was accurate, Hinds said in the middle of February (week seven) there had been 38 cases, and 24 in week eight.

But he said this "started to turn around" in week nine, when it went to 27 cases.

"And by week ten, it started to go up. So we had a 37 per cent increase in week ten, an 89 per cent increase in week 11...Week 12, which was March 21, a 64 per cent increase.

"So we began to see a steady increase from one week to the next. And then, while that increase looked like it might have been slowing a little, we then began to see large increases."

He said generally, all forms of movement would have contributed to "additional mixing of a population that has circulating virus," adding that there was "a surge on top of a surge.

"Any mixing and moving increases the risk for transmission."

He also said while there was an increase after Easter, cases had already been increasing before then.

"The important lesson has not changed from 2020: increased movement in a population with a circulating virus is going to cause increased numbers of cases."

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