Deyalsingh: Moderna covid19 vaccine ideal for TT

Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh says the Moderna covid19 vaccine will be "more ideal" for TT than the Pfizer vaccine.

He said this is based on the "current research and science."

Deyalsingh was speaking at the Health Ministry's virtual media conference on Wednesday morning.

Moderna is a US biotechnology company and Pfizer is a US pharmaceutical corporation. Deyalsingh said the Moderna vaccine is part of the WHO's Covax vaccination programme, of which TT is a member.

This vaccine has been proven to be 95 per cent effective and requires two doses, taken 28 days apart.

"The advantage is the Moderna vaccine can be stored at much higher temperatures than the Pfizer. The Pfizer can be stored at -70 degrees Celsius to -80 degrees Celsius.

"But the Moderna vaccine can be stored at -20 degrees Celsius for up to six months. So logistically, that is a huge improvement."

He said it can also be stored at room temperature for up to 12 hours and remain stable.

In anticipation of this vaccine being approved by the WHO, he said, the ministry has "set up a team to look at all aspects of vaccine storage and vaccine distribution.

"So we have our project management unit, communications, IT, finance..."

He said there will be three sites for the storage of the vaccines, with the Couva Hospital being the main hub.

"We are going to have to build separate walk-in chillers, and order ultra-cold chain freezers to store the vaccines. We will order five, eight or ten. We will make that final decision this week."