Vaccinations begin in April as covid19 cases climb by 115

Trinidad and Tobago's vaccination rollout programme is expected to begin on April 6 with 33,600 vaccines from Covax.

Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh made the announcement on Saturday afternoon during a press conference at the Diplomatic Centre in St Ann's while cautioning that the schedule would be kept “if everything goes to plan.”

The announcement came even as the ministry’s 4 pm update noted another death after a week of 115 new cases.

The new death, an elderly female with multiple comorbidities, brought the country’s total covid19 related deaths to 142.

There were also 15 new cases of covid19 from samples taken between February 24 to 26, bringing the number of cases in TT to 7,954.

The number of active cases increased by five to 222 from Friday, as nine people in self-isolation at home recovered. A total of 7,590 people have recovered from covid19.

The number of people in home isolation is 191, in state quarantine facilities is 162, three at step down facilities, and 13 in hospital.

There were seven at Couva Hospital, three at Caura Hospital, and three at Scarborough Regional Hospital at Fort St George. The three people at step-down facilities were at the UWI, Debe Campus.

The number of tests done in TT was 108,169.

Deyalsingh explained that the vaccines were en route from South Korea but they had to go through Brussels, Amsterdam, and Miami before arriving in TT on March 30 at 6.10 pm.

He said half of the vaccines would be stored at C40 in Chaguaramas and the other half at Couva Hospital.

Then, on April 1, 3,000 doses would be sent to Tobago where, the Prime Minister said he would be vaccinated as soon as it was available to him.

“I expect to be on Tobago on the day that I’ve heard and it appears as though I may be having to take mine in Tobago. And I’ll do that in Tobago without any hesitation.”

Deyalsingh continued, “The reason why we couldn’t communicate the total vaccination plan before this is because we were uncertain about the numbers. Because we didn’t want to alert people and communicate we are vaccinating and then the numbers go down and then people get disappointed.”

He said the 33,600 doses would be used to continue to vaccinate the country’s 5,000 frontline health care workers, as well as those 60 years and over with non-communicable diseases who were members of public health clinics. Members of the clinic would be vaccinated on their usual clinic days while people of the general public in the same category could make appointments to be vaccinated on non-clinic days.

Appointments could be made online, via telephone, or in person at health care centres. He told people to walk with their existing vaccination cards so that the covid19 vaccination could be recorded, as well as the appointment for the second dose. More than 1,000 health workers have already been vaccinated with the first doses of a 2,000 gift of vaccines from Barbados out of a donation of 100,000 vaccines it received from India in February. After a shortlived diplomatic and political row over government's efforts to secure World Health Organization (WHO)-approved Covishield vaccines from India, TT is due to receive a donation of 40,000 doses from the country at an undetermined date. China has also promised 100,000 doses of its Sinopharm vaccine, which the Prime Minister would be accepted once it receives WHO approval.

Epidemiologist Dr Avery Hinds on Saturday noted the “slow but steady” increase in the number of new daily cases over the past two weeks, the highest being 38 on Wednesday.

He said before March 9, the rolling seven-day average was three new cases per day. Currently, that average is 17.

“We see certain patterns of activities rearing their heads including those individuals who attend indoor gatherings, those individuals who may be ill and going to gatherings, for example church or otherwise.”

He added that there were reports of people without masks, large gatherings, and people not being as attentive in their day-to-day activities, such as not wearing masks in the office.

He also noticed an increase in the number of new cases after the relaxing of restrictions for sports. He stressed the problem was not the playing of sports itself, but most likely the gathering and camaraderie on the sidelines as well as before and after matches or practices.