Quarantine limbo

Relatives of covid19 patients want to know why it is taking so long for tests to be done at the step-down facility at the Home of Football in Couva. The relatives are wondering if the state has forgotten about their loved ones.

Nine patients were decanted from the Caura Hospital on Wednesday night and taken to the Home of Football step-down facility.

Speaking to Newsday, relatives said three patients at the facility who were swabbed last week Friday were told on Tuesday that they had tested positive for the virus.

“Why the delay? And, why the delay in testing again?” relatives asked. “They want to be tested so that if they receive their two negative results, they can come home.”

For some of them, they have been in quarantine for close to a month.

None of the families Newsday spoke to want their relatives’ names published because they fear they will be victimised.

“They feel as if they do not have rights. They are not fighting to come out,’ the relative said.

Newsday also understands that the mother and her two children, who withdrew their lawsuit last week, in which they were challenging their quarantine, are staying in one room.

And while other patients, according to their relatives, are thankful they are no longer at Caura since conditions at the step-down facility are much better, they feel like prisoners as they are locked in their rooms.

“It is horrible. They are locked in a room. They are annoyed. We are annoyed,” a relative said.

They said the wait to deliver food at the step-down facility takes two hours and they can only deliver one meal at a time. They also claimed to be bullied by the soldiers at the facility.

“The process takes two hours so if you take breakfast to them, they won’t get it until two hours later and by that time it would be lunch. But they cannot voice their opinions,” the relative said.

At the step-down facilities, each patient generally gets their own room with internet access.

On Thursday, at the Health Ministry’s virtual media briefing, Chief Medical Officer Dr Roshan Parasram said patients at the covid19 step-down facilities in Sangre Grande, Couva and Tacarigua required minimal levels of care, were recovered and showing no symptoms.

He said there some would be awaiting their first negative test, while others would be waiting for their second negative test.

Nurses will also be staying with patients on-site.

On Monday, Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh said the use of step-down facilities was to avoid “Armageddon” in the fight against covid19.

““When you send someone home you lose control of their behaviour. They will go and infect four, and those will infect 40, and soon thousands could be infected,” Deyalsingh said.

“That is why we have step-down facilities and that is why we have avoided Armageddon.”

On April 13, the minister also said at these facilities were established to work parallel to the health care system to prevent it from being overwhelmed.

He said since it was unclear how many people could become infected at any given time, adequate facilities were necessary to treat the sick