PM tells Tobago: Get vaccinated to save your life

The Prime Minister is making a special call for Tobagonians to get vaccinated, warning, “You don't know when you will be exposed to the virus.”

Addressing reporters during the weekly post Cabinet news conference on Thursday at the Prime Minister’s residence in Blenheim, Tobago, Rowley gave official vaccination figures.

As of 10 pm on Thursday, 11,853 Tobagonians have received a first dose of a covid19 vaccine, and 9,299 are fully vaccinated.

He said Tobago requested 10,000 units from the last shipment which arrived in the country and “because Tobago’s population is small, whatever is requested, they would get.

“In short, Tobago is adequately supplied and will be adequately supplied with enough vaccines to meet the needs of every person in Tobago who needs to be vaccinated and they’re well on the way to that, but we’ll like to see that continue and be accelerated, of course.”

Rowley said the decision to be vaccinated is a matter of life and death.

“We would encourage...every person in Tobago who needs to be vaccinated to do so as quickly as possible, because you don’t know when you would be exposed to the virus. Do it as quickly as possible and the life you save may be your own.”

He said the initially target was to have 900,000 people vaccinated throughout TT.

He said 1.2 million doses of double-dose vaccines have entered the country, which could vaccinate 600,000 people.

“The government has done its part, the most difficult part, and so we’re asking you to do your part – get vaccinated.”

He reiterated that the vaccination process remains voluntary.

“The process that we’ve been using is one of voluntary response and encouraging people to come in a managed way to the sites for vaccination. That was largely because we didn’t have enough vaccines – as of today, not withstanding what we’ve used, the figure that I have before today’s work is 477,000 shots have been used, both first dose and second dose, of the 1.2 million that we have in hand. We still have approximately 700,000 doses and can therefore vaccinate 350,000 people.”

Rowley said he was concerned that there will be vaccines in hand if more people do not advantage of TT’s available stock.

“We need to step up and have more people vaccinated as quickly as possible. We’ve got vaccines in hand now and now we have 700,000 doses – we need to get them into arms.”

Highlighting a newspaper article in which three generation of family members in Trinidad succumbed to the pandemic within days of each other, he described it as “very distressing,” as he extended condolences to the family.

Responding to a question on the reopening of churches, Rowley said he could not give an answer, but he assured that everything is being done with caution.