Though there are fewer covid19 patients needing hospitalisation, principal medical officer at the Ministry of Health Dr Maryam Abdool-Richards said the percentage of critically ill patients continues to climb.

At Monday’s virtual press conference hosted by the Ministry of Health, Richards said 80 per cent of patients warded over the past month have been severely ill.

As of Monday morning, 393 patients remained warded in the parallel health care system. Of these, 306 patients required critical care.

She said the high dependency unit is at 23 per cent, the intensive care unit 66 per cent, and Tobago's covid19 facility occupancy rate stood at 28 per cent.

“Despite the fact that these occupancy levels in the ICU and HDU wards may appear low, we still have an average of 80 per cent for ICU patients between June 1 and now, and in recent times 72 per cent for new patients.

"It means we still have many critically and severely ill patients requiring ventilation, dialysis and other forms of care in the parallel health care system.

“This consistent trend has indicated since the first of June that there are three times as many severely and critically ill patients who received care, as opposed to those recovering." She added: “This is a very good reason to be vaccinated to prevent ourselves, families, from being warded in a hospital, especially in the intensive care and high dependency care unit.”

She said of the 16 facilities that manage covid19 patients, nine have been caring for those who are critically ill. Eight of the nine are under 75 per cent occupancy, she reported.

All step-down facilities are reporting below 75 per cent occupancy.