Health Minister: TT to get up to 120,000 AstraZeneca vaccines

Trinidad and Tobago will be getting 100,000–120,000 doses of the AstraZeneca covid19 vaccine by the beginning of March 2021.

Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh made the announcement on Saturday evening at the TT Medical Association’s virtual presidential inauguration and conferring of honours ceremony 2021.

He said through the Covax facility, TT was allocated enough doses to vaccinate 50,000 people and they should arrive in the country by the end of February or the beginning of March.

The vaccine rollout is expected to take place in both the public and private health systems.

“What we are aiming to do is take the vaccinations to people instead of people coming for the vaccinations. I must tell you, I was heartened today. iIn speaking to owners and practitioners in the private sector, I spoke to about four or five of them, and I told them, ‘I would give you the vaccines free. All I ask is that you give it away free,’ and I got absolutely no hesitation.”

Now, the ministry would have to decide how the doses would be distributed between the public and private sector, but the vaccines would be available to their medical worker, patients, and immediate communities.

“As I said since December, we will be following the science, and once a person is vaccinated, we will reserve that second dose for that person. So we will not be giving away 100,000 to 100,000 persons and then they don’t know when and if they will get their second dose.”

He said the ministry already stockpiled 1.5 million syringes, one million alcohol swabs, and other incidentals. The public sector also has the capacity to store 300,000 doses at two–eight degrees (AstraZeneca), 200,000 at -70 degrees (Pfizer), and 200,000 at -20 degrees (Moderna).

He added that the ministry was currently doing desktop training and would do field training programmes in Couva, Arima, and Tobago in the near future.

This first shipment of vaccines will be available pending the emergency-use licence from the World Health Organization.