Deyalsingh: School outreach covid19 jab figures 'pathetic'

HEALTH Minister Terrence Deyalsingh has expressed concern that only 14 secondary school students have been vaccinated against covid19 as part of a school vaccination outreach programme which began on Monday.

Deyalsingh and emergency medical care specialist Dr Joanne Paul reiterated their appeals to parents to ensure their children are vaccinated.

They spoke during the virtual covid19 news conference on Wednesday.

On February 18, the Health Ministry said the covid19 vaccination rollout at schools would target students 12-17 at 35 schools.

To date, Deyalsingh said 701, 307 people or 52.1 per cent of the eligible population, are fully vaccinated. He added that 131,890 people have received their covid19 boosters, which he said was: "a decent place to be but we can do better."

Approximately 2,551 public-sector workers have been vaccinated at two designated sites for them at the Southern Academy for the Performing Arts in San Fernando and Government Campus Plaza in Port of Spain. Public-sector workers could also be getting vaccinated at other sites.

But the vaccination figures for the school outreach programme between Monday and Tuesday concerned Deyalsingh.

"A grand total of 14. That is pathetically low."

He reiterated his appeal to parents "to take advantage of the fact that we now have clinical data that shows that vaccination works to prevent your children from getting MIS-C (an illness that can occur after covid19 infection and affects mostly school-age children)."

Referring to earlier comments by Paul during the briefing, Deyalsingh said, "Many of these children are asymptomatic. They do not know that they have MIS-C."

Symptoms of MIS-C are stomach pain, bloodshot eyes, diarrhoea, dizziness or lightheadedness (signs of low blood pressure), rashes and vomiting.

Deyalsingh urged parents to be proactive and ensure their children are vaccinated during the outreach programme, if they have not already done so.

"We are coming to you. Let's save our 12-18 cohort. That's my plea this morning."

Paul said as parents prepare their children to return to physical classes in the coming months, ensuring they are vaccinated is as important as having their uniforms and books ready.

"Generally, covid19 is milder in children, for sure, especially with (the) omicron (covid19) variant." But Paul warned, "We have the ones who are the younger, the babies, who are having severe covid."

There are other children with medical conditions that make them vulnerable to covid19, she said.

"These are the ones that have been having the mortality so far."

Last month and this month, she continued, have seen increases in MIS-C cases.

But Paul added, "No patient who has had their vaccination has had MIS-C since August (2021), when we started our vaccination with our children, with our adolescent age group."

She also said, "Our child mortality rate in Trinidad and Tobago is below international standards."

To date, 12 children under 18 have died from covid19 in TT. Of those, 11 were under 16.

According to data collected by UNICEF (UN International Children's Emergency Fund), Paul said the international average of child mortality with respect to covid 19 is 0.4 per cent.

"The TT average is 0.3 per cent."

Since the pandemic began in 2020, 342 children have been admitted into the parallel health care system established to deal with covid19. Five children with covid19 (ages one month, two months, two, eight and 12) are currently hospitalised in that system.

Between 2020 and 2021, Paul said there were children with primary covid19 and covid-related illnesses.

"The trend so far this year is now changing a bit into two groups."

The first group are children who show no covid19 symptoms but become severely ill should they get covid19. Paul said children in this group include babies under a year.

"They are the ones. if they get covid, they are the ones in the ICU (intensive care unit) and HDU (high dependency unit)."

The second group are children with chronic medical conditions such as heart disease, diabetes and obesity.

Paul said, "When they get covid, they get very ill with covid, even with omicron, and they are in hospital."

Deyalsingh corrected a reporter who misunderstood comments made during the briefing to mean more schools would open in April. He reminded the media that such decisions were not made by his ministry but by the Education Ministry.