Deyalsingh: Ministry working on vaccine booster programme

Minister of Health Terrence Deyalsingh has said his ministry has ordered a surplus of Sinopharm and Johnson & Johnson covid19 vaccines to accommodate recipients who want a booster shot of the vaccine.

Deyalsingh made the announcement during the ministry’s virtual covid19 briefing on Monday.

He said Trinidad and Tobago now has a stock of 690,625 vaccine doses.

In the early days of the pandemic, he recalled, there were issues of severe inequity, when the vaccine was not readily available.

“We engaged in scenario planning, including stock of vaccines in excess of what we will normally use,” said Deyalsingh.

He said with the advent of the new omicron variant, it was time for the ministry to revisit the vaccination programme.

“(We know) after two years this virus is going to be ever-evolving, especially when variants of concern start to rear their heads. If Trinidad and Tobago didn’t learn from past experiences and engage in scenario planning, (vaccine inequity) would not have been a good place to be.”

He said 84,000 doses of the Sinopharm from the Covax facility and 150,000 doses of the J&J vaccines from the African Medical Supply platform have been received in TT.

“We knew at some point in time that if we didn’t proactively do this…to protect the vaccinated population outside of the current programme, we were going to have to launch a booster programme.”

Deyalsingh said the booster programme is being discussed at the ministry and further information will be made available to the public soon.