BASSETERRE, St. Kitts - TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO is now the second territory in the region to confirm the new UK variant of the COVID-19 pandemic, raising alarm that it may spread within the twin-island Republic.
In a media statement, the Ministry of Health in Port-of-Spain confirmed the presence of the B117 variant of the virus, which is also present in Jamaica.
Health officials have described this new variant as being 70 percent more contagious than the current strain of the virus.
The Ministry said the patient is a returned national who travelled from the United Kingdom; and as per existing quarantine protocols, the person provided a negative PCR test that was taken 72-hours prior to departure from the UK.
The authorities noted that upon arrival in Trinidad and Tobago, the national was immediately placed in state quarantine, in a single room and later transferred directly to an isolation area at the Couva Hospital and Multi-training Facility, once the positive COVID-19 result was confirmed.
“The presence of the variant was confirmed via a gene sequencing study at the Faculty of Medical Sciences, University of the West Indies, which has been testing COVID-19 positive samples collected since September 2020,” the Ministry disclosed.
Discovery of several new variants of the virus is raising alarms in some quarters of the health sector as officials are concerned whether these mutations could be treated by the various vaccines that were produced.
The Ministry added that members of the public are asked to note that research has suggested that this strain of COVID-19 is more easily spread from person to person than previous strains.
