Health Ministry to launch new vaccine rollout for elderly

IN a bid not to repeat the chaos that took place last week, the Health Ministry will be contacting people 65 and older who are already registered in the health care system to receive their covid19 vaccines.

Using 36 health centres across Trinidad and Tobago, Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh said 20,000 people will get their first dose starting from Wednesday.

Deyalsingh, who spoke at the health briefing at the Prime Minister’s residence, St Ann’s on Saturday, said the new method is not a dismissing of the old appointment system but was a better way to manage the vaccine rollout.

He said the distribution of 50 doses per health centre done last week will be scrapped. The adjusted programme, he said, will also target those who made appointments and were on the waiting list before last week’s debacle, including elderly people who cannot visit the health centres, through the district health visitor, and those living in homes for the elderly.

“We will be contacting you and asking you to come to the sites. You don’t have to come. You don’t have to line up. You don’t have to be inconvenienced.”

Deyalsingh said in the next two-three weeks the Health Ministry will be using an online system, similar to what the Ministry of the Attorney General and Legal Affairs uses for birth registration, for vaccine appointments.

Dr Rowley said on Monday 200,000 doses of Sinopharm vaccines, out of 500,000 ordered from China, will arrive in the country. Half of that will be used to give people the second dose.

The elderly will be among those who benefit from the remaining 100,000 vaccines that will be distributed to various sectors. The other include the manufacturing, supermarkets, construction, banking, Tobago, private sector, diabetes association and employees of the Community-Based Environmental Protection and Enhancement Programme (CEPEP). All will receive both their doses from the remaining 100,000 doses.

Deyalsingh said the vaccination drive for those who received their first jab of AstraZeneca continues at five vaccination sites across the country.