Kamla: Deyalsingh must be fired

OPPOSITION Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar has called on the Prime Minister to fire Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh immediately arising out of the faux pas over donations of covid19 vaccines from Barbados.

On Wednesday, 100 frontline healthcare workers received the AstraZeneca covid19 vaccine at the Couva Hospital. These were from 2,000 vaccines donated to Trinidad and Tobago by Barbados. India had donated 100,000 to Barbados and that country's Prime Minister Mia Mottley later decided to donate some to TT.

But Deyalsingh on Wednesday, denied that Barbados had donated the vaccines,saying the doses were “a gift to the region” by India and Barbados was solely a drop-off point.

He later apologised, claiming he had been misinformed.

Deyalsingh's claim that the doses were a gift to the Caribbean has since been roundly criticised by Barbadian social media users.

Persad-Bissessar issued a release on Thursday saying Deyalsingh’s comments were “inexcusable and false.”

“That TT has had to rely on vaccine donations from Barbados is a damning indictment on the Government. If we are to believe the Minister of Health that he did not know the source of the vaccines his own ministry administered to front line workers, he is clearly incompetent and unfit for his job. It perhaps also explains the shambolic manner in which the Keith Rowley regime has bungled the response to the pandemic.”

She said while other countries are speedily moving along with vaccinations, it seems TT may be the “last country in the world to be fully vaccinated.”

She added, “It is also beyond puzzling why the Rowley regime has not approached the Government of India for a supply of vaccines as did the Government of Barbados.”

But on Wednesday, Deyalsingh told the media that TT and India are in talks about vaccines.

The UNC leader insisted, “Given that the covid19 pandemic is the most serious health crisis we are facing, the public can have no trust in the Government's response as long as Terrence Deyalsingh remains in his post. He must go now.”