Deyalsingh confident about safety as more students return to schools

HEALTH Minister Terrence Deyalsingh is confident that sufficient covid19 safeguards are in place for more in-person classes in schools from Monday.

Deyalsingh expressed this confidence during the virtual health news conference on Saturday.

Responding to a claim last week from TT Unified Teachers Association president Antonia Tekah-De Freitas that teachers died from covid19 while they were on duty at school, Deyalsingh said, "We have no hard evidence to show that any number of people who died would have contracted the disease (covid19) in any particular place of work."

While reiterating his support for greater re-opening of schools for in-person classes, Deyalsingh reminded the public there will always be risks to re-opening any part of the society during the pandemic.

"Our children need to be out there...learning, playing, moving, meeting their peers, socialising, getting their nutrition. " He added, "The benefits, far, far, outweigh the risks."

On January 24, the Education Ministry said students in forms one-three and standard five will return to the physical classroom on February 7.

Last December, Education Minister Dr Nyan Gadsby-Dolly announced that lower forms and standard five students preparing for Secondary Entrance Assessment (SEA) exams would be allowed to return to face-to-face classes this month.

Chief Medical Officer (CMO) Dr Roshan Parasram said TT already received two tranches of the Pfizer vaccine, the only covid19 vaccine which can be administered to children 12 years and older.

Parasram said, "We have a meeting scheduled on Monday with Washington." Coming out of this meeting, he continued, the ministry would have an idea when to expect the third tranche of Pfizer vaccines from the US. The existing stock of Pfizer vaccines have an expiry date of February 28.

Last October, the Prime Minister said if a covid19 vaccine is approved by the World Health Organization (WHO) for children five years and older, once it is available, it will be put on the list of mandatory vaccines for children to attend public school.

Dr Rowley, speaking on Saturday at a PNM virtual public meeting, said he and other regional leaders signed a Caricom document just days ago, which is intended to help acquire vaccines for children in this age category.

Parasram also said the quarantine period for asymptomatic people (who show no symptoms of covid19) remains at 14 days, after they were first exposed or believed to have been exposed to a covid19 infected person.

In the case of symptomatic (mild to severe) people who are in isolation, he indicated they could be discharged after a minimum of ten days, if it is determined they show no symptoms. But Parasram said an additional three-day period could be added, to ensure they do not develop any covid19 symptoms before they are discharged.

On the effectiveness of antigen tests to determine whether someone has covid19 or not, Parasram said, "Sensitivity and specificity varies depending on the type (of antigen test), where the sample is taken as well and the storage conditions.

Home antigen tests, not done in a laboratory setting, are prone to inefficiencies. Parasram also said recent research shows the sensitivity and specificity of antigen tests to detect the omicrom covid19 variant has dropped significantly.

He added the best place to get the antigen test done remains in the public health system where a PCR test could be done to confirm whether or not they have covid19.

As of Friday, Deyalsingh said 694,625 people have been fully vaccinated against covid19. "So we are inching up to that sort of magical number of 70,000 (people fully vaccinated) which will represent 50 per cent of our population." While this is not a bad target to achieve, vaccination continues to proceed very slowly.

He said, "We still have 46.9 per cent of the population who are fully vaccinated."

Approximately114, 938 people have received their covid19 booster shots to date. The Health Ministry began the booster programme began last December.

Deyalsingh outlined the booster schedule which begins tomorrow for people who received AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson vaccines, last August and last December respectively.