rinidad-born Dr Michael Pillai, 28, is one of the ‘heroes’ working on the frontline in a hospital in East Brooklyn, New York.Pillai, who is originally from Diego Martin, is an internal medicine resident and is in his second year of residency.Working through this COVID-19 pandemic happened to fall during his training so he did not have a choice but to work.
“I was needed at the hospital. In a matter of months the way we once knew life had changed. The cases increased rapidly and so did the complications,” Pillai said.
“I’ve worked in the ICU as well as on the admitting team during this period. While in the ICU the entire unit was COVID positive of varying ages. During admittance, more than 90 per cent of admissions to the hospital were due to respiratory problems from COVID-19. It was necessary to create new areas of the hospital to accommodate the amount of COVID-19 patients and residents from all specialties were helping with the work that was necessary,” he added.
Pillai, in sharing his experience with Guardian Media, said the work load increased “exponentially and more was expected of us as physicians.”
He said it has taken an emotional toll both on families and on health care workers including nurses and physicians.
“The death rate increased substantially as did the amount of codes being called for rapidly deteriorating patients. I have personally seen people that I work with who have suffered from this virus that lead them needing critical management. These include; doctors, nurses, clerks, respiratory therapists,” Pillai said.
“Though I would say the number of admissions for COVID-19 has been decreasing comparing last week to the prior week. This virus is affecting people of all ages especially with rapid deterioration in the obese population necessitating ventilator support,” he added.
Pillai said COVID-19 causes a decreased oxygen level amongst some patient called hypoxia, “This lack of oxygen causes respiratory distress necessitating oxygen delivery to these patients by external measures. When these patients do not respond to external measures of oxygen delivery then the decision is made for intubation and connection to a ventilator.”
“Some of these patient’s with COVID-19 develop Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS) and at this point the chances of successful extubation from the ventilator decreases significantly. It is also important to note that these are with the critical patients,” he added.
Pillai noted that people are also recovering with supportive care such as treating the fevers, adequate hydration and self-isolation, “During this pandemic visitors have not been allowed due to the risk of spread of the virus. That being said, patients’ families have to be called daily with updates on patient care as they cannot see their family members so there are unfortunate cases where people are dying alone under these circumstances.”
This process, he further explained, has been difficult in many aspects “but it is important that we work with what we have and work together to operate as efficiently as possible.”
In giving advice to T&T, Pillai urged all to, “stay at home and refrain from gatherings.”
“Remember to leave your shoes outside your door and wipe your phones and your glasses. We are facing this pandemic together and it is important that we look out for each other and maintain social distance,” he said.
“I often wonder if I would have chosen to go into medicine had I anticipated something like this. In the grand scheme of things we all have our part to play, this just happens to be mine, and I humbly embrace it,” he added. Source: TT Guardian, May 3, 2020

A team of Cuban nurses arrived in Trinidad and Tobago on Friday to assist this country with its COVID-19 efforts.
Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh made the announcement while speaking at the daily virtual media briefing on Saturday.
He said the nurses will be quarantined for a 14-day period before they are deployed.
"The Cuban team of nurses of 11 or 12 did in fact arrive yesterday (Friday). We are happy to welcome them to Trinidad and Tobago. As per protocol, they are going to be quarantined for a period of two weeks just to make sure, just like we did with the contingent from Barbados and Suriname," Deyalsingh said.
The Health Minister added that they are Intensive Care Unit (ICU) nurses.
He noted that there is a shortage of that skill in T&T and local nurses are being trained.
"Once they get the all clear, then we will have them deployed where we need them. These nurses are specialist ICU nurses. In Trinidad and Tobago, we have a shortage of that skill. They are not taking the job of Trinidad nurses. What we are doing in the interim is also training our local nurses in ICU management."
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Health said in its 4 pm clinical update on May 2, 2020, confirmed that the number of positive cases remains at 116, with eight deaths.
To date, 1,838 samples have been submitted for testing, with 1,517 unique patient tests completed and 312 repeated tests. 
The Ministry said 88 people have been discharged to date, with one additional person discharged from the Home of Football in Couva.
Currently, six patients are still at the Couva Hospital and there are no patients at Caura Hospital.
The Ministry said there are no patients in ICU or HDU. 
Source:  The Loop, May 3, 2020

Tony was a renaissance man, excelling as an actor, presenter, director, scriptwriter, playwright, teacher, dramaturge and mentor who played a critical role in the development of the Trinidad production company, Banyan, and its position in local television. I first interacted with Tony in 1976 when he played a lead part in Derek Walcott’s musical “O Babylon!” Tony’s stature was such that he was already being recognised as heir apparent to Walcott , but he also had a career in community theatre beckoning in Canada. Enter Banyan, which had just been awarded a major grant by the International Planned Parenthood Federation to produce a thirteen-part “education” television series “Who The CAP Fits”. Thus began an over forty-year relationship that only concluded with his recent sad death. 
Tony’s community theatre approach encouraged audience involvement and improvisation; when married with social commentary and the humour and satire of early Banyan programmes, a new style was born. So “CAP” started with no script, but a handful of leading local actors and young talent who worked with Tony as they developed their characters. This was followed by improvised acting sessions, and gradually a script was born. This technique was used in countless other Banyan series and programmes such as “Morral”, “Epiphany” and a similar collaborative approach was used in the “Gayelle” magazine series and the award winning “And The Dish Ran Away With The Spoon” with the wonderful pairing of Tony and Errol Sitahal. 
Tony played the leading role in the local film, “Obeah” (1987) – initially known as “The Haunting of Avril” – which was directed by Hugh Robertson ( of “Bim”). Unfortunately, the film is still awaiting post-production funds, and it would be a great tribute to Tony if the Government or private sector would pay for the completion of this film. The trinidad+tobago film festival would love to screen it! 
Tony always had great plans to complete major film projects such as a film version of his play, “Jean and Dinah”, and a major documentary on the life of Kwame Ture (Stokely Carmichael). Unfortunately, he did not receive the support for these and many other worthy cultural projects which he developed. 
At the height of Banyan’s success, I mused on the role of the main contributors and recognised that while each of us (Tony, Christopher Laird and I) had unique skills and talents, you couldn’t compare our individual accomplishments to the energy and creativity that emerged when we worked together as Banyan. I said it was like the Beatles. Tony laughed.
.
Michael Tony Hall was a Trinidadian actor, playwright, director and presenter. Among his many achievements, in 2002, Hall, Bruce Paddington and Christopher Laird, as Banyan, received the Vanguard Award from the National Drama Association for innovative ground-breaking television. Tony Hall, who was 71, died of a heart attack 27 April, 2020.  
Photograph © Abigail Hadeed, Splice Studios. Source:  TT Film Festival, May 2020. Story by Bruce Paddington, Founder of Banyan Productions

Trinidad and Tobago is now listed at number one in an updated covid19 lockdown rollback checklist compiled by Oxford University researchers.
The report, the Oxford Covid19 Government Response Tracker (OxCGRT), was created by the University of Oxford's Blavatnik School of Goverment (BSG).
The data is analysed by a team of researchers led by Dr Thomas Hale, associate professor of global public policy at BSG.
It is a working paper, which means it is a non-peer-reviewed article. These are used for early drafts to gather feedback before they are submitted to academic journals.
This country shares the lead with Croatia, Hong Kong and Iceland.
The list which ranks countries that meet World Health Organization's recommendations for relaxing physical distancing measures.
In a previous list issued on April 23, TT was ranked second to Vietnam.
TT and nearly 160 other countries were graded in four areas: cases controlled; test, trace and isolate; manage import cases; and community understanding.
This country has a score of one, the highest achievable, for control of cases, as well as community understanding, along with other high scores of 0.8 for testing and isolation, and 0.9 for community understanding. It gives the country a total score of 0.9.
Croatia, Hong Kong and Iceland were ranked joint first with the same score.
By comparison, the UK is languishing near to the bottom, only four places above Iran, which sits last. The UK's total score is 0.3, with the only respectable score being 0.9 in community understanding.
The first published list not did not identify the countries' individual scores.
Before ranking each country by scores, the document notes that while the publisher, Oxford Covid19 Government Response Tracker (OxCGRT), and its data cannot fully say how ready countries are to leave lockdown, it provides for a rough comparison across nations.
"Even this 'high level' view reveals that few countries are close to meeting the WHO criteria for rolling back lock-down measures. At the time of writing, only a handful of countries are doing well at the four 'checklist' criteria OxCGRT is able to track," the report says.
Hale's report used WHO guidelines as its basis.
Minister of Health Terrence Deyalsingh, asked for his thoughts on TT's number-two position on Wednesday, said the population should not react with a false sense of security.
He added, however, that the Oxford report is "a very good report" and "paints us in an excellent light."
"This is testimony to what we have been saying all along," Deyalsingh said, "that our response to covid, led by the prime minister, was a robust one...What this speaks to is that the world is recognising that the decision not to flip a switch and open back the economy is the right way." Source: Newsday, May 1, 2020