Deyalsingh: No Covax vaccine allocated to Caribbean yet

HEALTH Minister Terrence Deyalsingh said TT is pursuing the acquisition of covid19 vaccines by three different means, including the Covax facility, but this latter has not yet allocated any to the Caribbean region. He was replying to an urgent question on Tuesday in the Senate from Opposition Senator David Nakhid, who asked whether the recent emergence of a more transmissible strain is expected to hasten delivery of a vaccine shipment to TT.

Deyalsingh replied, “The ministry has been aggressively pursuing three options.” He said the Government paid $1.4 million into Covax last September.

“The officials of Covax have indicated that the allocation of vaccines to each country should be completed by January 31, 2021, which is a few days away. Thereafter the purchasing and distribution of vaccines would then be finalised.”

Secondly, he said TT has had bilateral talks with since last September with vaccine manufacturers including Pfizer, Oxford-Astra Zeneca, Sinopharm, Moderna and Sanofi.

“And thirdly, quite recently, since January 2021, Caricom recently came up with a Caricom initiative where TT is a registered purchaser of vaccines.

“Between the three measures, we have been working since July 2019 to expedite the delivery of approved vaccines into TT.”

In a supplemental question, Nakhid asked which brand of vaccine Covax would allocate to TT.

Deyalsingh said by month-end, Covax would make that determination.

Nakhid scoffed, “So by your assertion, we paid $1.4 million and we don’t know what type of vaccine we are getting?”

Deyalsingh replied, “The $1.4 million paid into Covax was to help with research and development across a platform or portfolio of 12 vaccines.

“It is because of that reason, vaccine manufacturers were able to expedite the clinical trials. In the past, companies had to raise their own financing. If Covax was not around and countries did not pay into research and development, we would not be in a position now to even talk about vaccines. So that was the purpose.”

He reiterated that the $1.4 million went toward vaccine research.