(Trinidad Express) Government yesterday announced the roll back one of the Covid-19 coronavirus restrictions to allow sporting and recreational outdoor activities for maximum of 22 people.
Minister of Sport and Community Development Shamfa Cudjoe made the announcement at yesterday’s Covid-19 virtual press conference.
Cudjoe said the measure was for recreation only, and not for team competitions and professional leagues.
“It is important that we roll back slowly and monitor the situation properly before we encourage larger gatherings. I want to make it abundantly clear that we are rolling back this measure to allow outdoor sporting only. We are not encouraging leagues and competitions that require gathering or sporting indoors”, said Cudjoe.
The roll back measure will be implemented from tomorrow.
Meanwhile, Minister of Health Terrence Deyalsingh said that government continues its bilateral negotiations to acquire for vaccine acquisition.
He said the ministry of foreign affairs has been in contact with the Government of India, and the ministry of health’s negotiations with the vaccine manufacturers are “well-advanced and at a sensitive stage”.
“Rest assured we are pursuing many different avenues for vaccine acquisition“, said the health minister.
Deyalsingh said that between Wednesday and Friday 400 front line health workers employed at Covid-19 treatment facilities received their first dosage of the vaccine.
The batch of 2,000 vaccine-gift was sent to Trinidad and Tobago from Barbados – a vaccine- gift from the Government of India, which used Barbados as a conduit for vaccine donations across the Caribbean.
The vaccine exercise began at the Tobago Regional Health Authority yesterday morning.
“We are very, very pleased with these numbers because it speaks to a very high level of acceptance by our doctors, nurses and health care workers. We have 600 to go for our front line health care workers. The second thousand are for their second dose in the coming weeks”, said Deyalsingh.
Regarding the deployment of the 100-120,000 doses expected from the Covax facility in March, the health minister said that the ministry was in the last stages of the agreement.
Meanwhile, the health ministry has identified 20 sites across the country for the distribution of the vaccine.
He broke down the site numbers according to various health districts : Tobago Health Authority: three; South-West RHA : seven; ERHA (which serves Toco, Sangre Grande, Mayaro and Rio Claro) – three; North West RHA: seven.
Deyalsingh said that homes where there will also be vaccine distribution at long-stay patients.
Sites are chosen in terms of their physical capacity, layout, and information and communications technology ability for resuscitation equipment.
He added that there was an ICT aspect to the vaccine distribution, as there was software to track when vaccine patients were expected to attend their appointments.
The Pan American Health Organisation had donated 20 laptops towards the ICT aspect and will be placed at each vaccine distribution site.
The health minister encouraged the vaccine recipients to access the same distribution site for both doses.
“We’re urging people to make it easy for us, and access sites near your residences. It will make it easy for us for our records”, he said.
Deyalsingh said that Government’s public health policy included all immigrants in the country, and can access the vaccine whether documented or not.
And while the distribution would be done mainly by appointment, the health minister said there will also be accommodation for walk-in recipients.
He pointed out that vaccines were not mandatory, but voluntary.
Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr Roshan Parasram said that feedback from his colleagues who have already taken the vaccine indicated that they experienced ‘mild’ side-effects such as mild pain at the injection site and fatigue for after the first shot.