Senior citizens line up at Diego Martin Health Centre to register for covid19 vaccines

Senior citizens waited in one long line at the Diego Martin Health Centre for between 45 and 90 minutes to register for covid19 vaccines on Tuesday morning.

Trinidad and Tobago’s vaccination rollout programme started on Tuesday April 6 with 33,600 doses from Covax. Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh said the 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 (NCD) 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.

One staff member said initially there was no intention of conducting covid19 vaccination registration, as evidenced by the signs stating such at the gates. But when they saw the long lines of elderly people waiting for the gates to open at 8 am, the staff decided to accommodate the waiting crowd.

Almost all those in the lines said they went to the health centre because they could not get through to make appointments on the covid19 hotline, or the North West Regional Health Authority number set aside for that purpose.

Many people turned back when they saw the sign saying there was no registration, while others left not wanting to wait in the line that wrapped around the building. However, those who got through said the process itself was short and the workers were polite and efficient.

Kamal Mohammed, 71, agreed with the assessment. He was not part of a public health clinic but he had an NCD.

He said he waited in line at the health centre for an hour and a half because he could not get through over the phone.

“This phone system is pathetic. How do they expect one hotline and one extension to deal with thousands of people? Now they have old people waiting in line for long periods of time for a chance to get registered. They need to address that immediately.”