NCRHA CEO: Drive to Wallerfield, get vaccinated

North Central Regional Health Authority CEO, Davlin Thomas, said appointments are no longer necessary to be vaccinated at the Frankie Boodram Wallerfield International Raceway drive-through site.

“You can go down to Wallerfield and have your vaccinations in your car and we’ll take care of you from there.”

Speaking at the Ministry of Health virtual press conference on Saturday, he said five health centres had also been added to the NCRHA vaccination sites. These include Blanchisseuse, San Rafael, Talparo, Macoya, and Tacarigua. There will be drop boxes at the health centres where completed forms could be placed to facilitate vaccination appointments.

Thomas said between May 21 and July 23, 67,000 Sinopharm and 37,429 AstraZeneca doses were administered by the RHA. Also, 886 senior citizens who were shut-ins or in homes for the elderly were vaccinated.

He added that, from July 26 to August 16, second doses of AstraZeneca would be distributed at the UTT Campus on Monroe Road, Chaguanas.

According to Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh, about 12,000 to 15,000 people in the food and beverage industry were already vaccinated but the target was 20,000.

He said there was a vaccination drive with the Unemployment Relief and Community-Based Environmental Protection and Enhancement Programmes this weekend. The ministry also started vaccinating the UWI population on Friday including students, faculty, groundsmen, security, and more.

Vaccine doses have also been allocated to teachers, the oil and gas sector, the Coalition of Non-communicable Diseases and the Diabetes Association, and the prison population. He said there were 3,750 prisoners in TT but only ten percent agreed to be vaccinated. Their vaccination was now a matter of urgency since they lived in close quarters.

The ministry also hoped to vaccinate farmers and fishermen soon.

In order to encourage more people to get vaccinated, the ministry implemented more communication plans.

He said it already started audiovisual segments with religious leaders and local celebrities on tv and social media. Next week there would be community mic-ing through the Red Cross, as well as more radio segments.

“Our objective as a country now, with voluntary, highly recommenced vaccinations, is to get in front of the delta variant... We could speak about the delta variant as much as we want but at the end of the day, to get in front of it, to make sure it doesn’t decimate our population, to make sure it doesn’t cripple our health care system, just get vaccinated.”