TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO, February 21 - 18th February, 2022

Port-of-Spain, February 18^th, 2022: Members of the public are advised that, contrary to reports in the public domain, there were no deaths in the public health system, which resulted from the national power outage.

The established contingency measures of the public health facilities were quickly activated during the electrical outage on Wednesday 16^th February, 2022. This ensured that critical care continued to be provided to patients throughout the outage. There were no reports of any related adverse events.

All public hospitals are equipped with emergency backup generators, which were utilized. Major hospitals also had onsite adequate diesel storage in the event the generators were needed beyond the usual generator run times.

Where required, electrical supply was prioritized for critical areas, such as Intensive Care Units (ICU) and the Neonatal Intensive Care Units (NICU), to ensure continuity of care for these highest risk patients.

Additionally there was no impact to national vaccine storage as these sites are also equipped with backup generators and appropriate refrigerators to treat with such incidences.

Facilities which store vaccines at the local level ( e.g. Offices of the County Medical Officers and District Health Facilities (DHF) are also equipped with backup generators for use in the event of a natural disaster or an electrical outage incident.  In cases where no such equipment exists, the established contingency is to transfer the vaccines to storage facilities with adequate backup electricity supply. Vaccine temperatures are closely monitored and deviation in temperature is noted and reported to the Expanded Programme on Immunization at the Ministry of Health for further action.

The Ministry of Health thanks the staff of the public health system for their dedication to continued patient care during this incident.