PROFESSOR of molecular genetics and virology at UWI, Christine Carrington, said that four cases of the omicron XBB.1.5 variant have been detected in this country. She, along with other members of the pandemic team, urged the population to get vaccinated.

She was speaking at a media conference on Thursday morning at the Diplomatic Centre in St Ann’s.

She said, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), this variant has been detected in 38 different countries, with most of the cases being in the US, and that based on genetic characteristics and early growth rate estimates, the variant may contribute to increases in case incidence.

Carrington said between December 10 and December 22, 2022, four cases of this variant were detected in TT. But she warned, the sampling was not done randomly so “it does not represent the whole of the TT population.” She said all omicron variants of concern are present in TT to varying degrees.

She said, in lab tests, the XBB.1.5 variant had proven to be the most resistant to antibodies to date, and likely to be associated with reinfections and breakthrough infections. But, in the real world, vaccines continued to be effective against severe disease and death.

She said there was no current data to say the variant would be more severe, as it did not carry any mutations known to cause greater severity.

Asked whether TT should be acquiring vaccines targeted toward the omicron variants of concern, she said, based on real-world examples, there was not much difference in protection from severe disease and death between the original and the new vaccines.

Principal medical officer Dr Maryam Abdool-Richards said the parallel health-care system continued to operate, and the process of transitioning that system had begun by building in capacity within the regional health authorities to manage covid19 under strict infection, prevention, and control guidelines.

She said the details of the hybrid system would be shared in next week’s covid19 media release.

“There has been an increase in the seven-day rolling average of cases, leading to an increase in the demand for hospital beds and care over the last month, beginning on December 8.

“There are currently 71 patients in the public health system being treated for covid19, 50 in the parallel health-care system, and 21 in the hybrid system. There are five ICU patients and two paediatric cases. Ninety per cent of people in the hospital were unvaccinated and have comorbidities.”

She said the patients were split 50/50 between primary cases, where they were admitted to hospital for covid19 symptoms, and incidental cases, where the patient had come in for another complaint such as having been in a car accident or for diabetes treatment, and then tested positive for covid19.

Abdool-Richards said the number of people waiting for transfer from accident and emergency departments on Thursday was six. She said the rolling average of ambulance use for covid19 patients was at seven per cent.

Thoracic care medical specialist at Caura Hos