Trinidad and Tobago Chamber says vaccination critical to reopen economy

THE Trinidad and Tobago Chamber says vaccination is critical to restarting the economy as it expressed relief that the Government agreed to reopen the retail sector.

In a release on Sunday, the Chamber said it was hoped that the latest ease on pandemic restrictions, from August 16, was “another step towards reopening sectors which are still closed such as cinemas, day spas and salons, churches and to allowing full operations in others, such as the restaurant industry.”

The Chamber said the country was yet to understand the true long-term economic impact to citizens and businesses.

“Many of our businesses have been significantly affected since March 2020 and cannot not sustain more of these cycles of opening and closures.

“Our collective actions in the coming weeks will determine whether we can continue to open additional sectors safely or face another wave of infections.”

The Chamber called on citizens and businesses to “collectively take personal responsibility” to follow the health protocols of hand washing, mask wearing and physical distancing.

“Businesses must also do their part to provide a safe environment for their employees and customers by implementing robust health and safety standards. This is even more crucial in high risk environments where there is increased potential for virus transmission,” the Chamber said.

It also urged vaccination to curb the death rate.

“The decision to get vaccinated has to be a layer of protection that our citizens take to protect us all from hospitalisation, curb the death rate and ultimately preserve lives and livelihoods.

“Vaccination is also critical in protecting us against existing variants and preventing the emergence of new variants.”

It said the positive news was that regardless of the variant, almost all hospitalisations and deaths were preventable once an individual was vaccinated.

“Trinidad and Tobago needs to achieve herd immunity so that we can sustainably restart all sectors of the economy and to get our society closer to the way we were as a people before the virus took hold.

“We are fortunate to be in a position to learn from the mistakes made in other countries, note best practices and take appropriate preemptive actions to ensure we reopen responsibly to save lives and livelihoods.

“The most responsible thing every citizen can do today is to get vaccinated and we encourage you to reach out to a trusted medical professional to discuss any concerns.”

The Chamber and Amcham, together with the TT Coalition of Services Industries, have initiated the mass vaccination site at the National Academy for the Performing Arts (NAPA).

The NAPA site is open from 9 am to 6 pm and the Chamber said from Monday, it will be administering the first doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine. It will also continue to administer the second dose of the Sinopharm vaccine.

Walk-ins will also be accommodated, the Chamber said.