2nd covid19 vaccine booster approved for certain groups

Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh said certain groups of people are now eligible for a second covid19 booster shot of the Pfizer mRNA vaccine.

He said rollout of this programme will begin on Friday.

Speaking at the Health Ministry's covid19 media conference on Wednesday, Deyalsingh said the three groups eligible for an additional Pfizer vaccine were those over 60, regardless of health status; healthcare workers, regardless of age and health status; and the immumo-compromised, regardless of age and health status.

He said the second booster dose had been approved by the World Health Organisation's (WHO) Strategic Advisory Group of Experts (SAGE) on Immunization within the last few days.

Deyalsingh said there are 51,722 Pfizer vaccines on hand, which will expire at the end of June. Boosters could be done as late as the end of June, while first shots for those who had not started the vaccination process would end on June 5. He said those who had not yet begun vaccination should do so as soon as possible.

He said there was currently no guarantee of when more vaccines would come in.

He reminded that the current batch was what remained of 75,000 vaccines received from the US, and half of a batch of 150,000. HIf the population did not use what was available, he warned, TT was not guaranteed to receive the second batch.