PAULA LINDO

REPORTING BY NICHOLAS BAYLEY

There is growing nervousness among medical professionals about the lifting of mask mandates both locally and regionally, with the growing presence of the omicron BA.5 variant in the Americas. CMO Dr Roshan Parasram said the BA.5 variant had been detected among 20 samples sent for genomic testing at the University of the West Indies last week, meaning it is present in the TT population.

Pan-American Health Organisation (PAHO) director Dr Carissa F Etienne, speaking at PAHO’s media conference on Wednesday, said a growing proportion of cases in the Americas are being caused by the BA.4 and BA.5 sub-lineages and this is driving new.

“In the US, BA.4 and BA.5 are the predominant sub variant strains, and an increasing number of countries in Latin America and the Caribbean are also reporting these sub-lineages. Omicron BA.5 has been detected in at least 22 countries and is likely to become predominant in all territories in the sub-region in the next few weeks. The emergence of BA.4 and BA.5 is yet another reminder that the virus keeps evolving every time it is transmitted and that we must remain vigilant.”

PAHO health emergencies director Dr Ciro Ugarte said transmission is faster when public health measures such as the use of masking have been relaxed.

“People begin to have a false sense of security thinking that everything is back to normal, but when a virus is transmitted from person to person, this leads to more mutations, generating other variants that may be transmitted more quickly. For example, when we have mass events, they need to think of additional measures to mitigate the risk of transmission."

Speaking at the Health Ministry’s covid19 media conference on Wednesday, Parasram said data suggests that while the BA.4 and BA.5 variants may be more transmissible, meaning that they spread easier, none of the sub-lineages of omicron have been shown to be more virulent, meaning that they don’t cause more severe disease.

“What we are mostly concerned with at this point in the pandemic is the impact on the hospitalisation and the impact on the number of people who have passed away due to the disease itself. Currently there are only 91 people in various hospital facilities in TT, which is lower than April 2021. We may expect an increase in the number of positive cases but once that doesn’t result in a concomitant increase in hospitalisations and death then the concern will be a little less.”

He said lifting the legislation relating to masks did not mean that masking is no longer required but the onus is transferred to the individual. He reminded people that wearing or not wearing a mask is now a personal choice which should be respected.

“It doesn’t have the force of law anymore except in certain places and a list of high-risk places will be uploaded to the ministry’s website. There is always a sense of trepidation when we do a change in a public health restriction but we expect after two years that people would have learned how to manage and live with covid1