(Trinidad Express) With the arrival of 800,000 doses of Sinopharm vaccine into Trinidad and Tobago on Tuesday, the Government’s plan is to have 400,000 persons vaccinated in an eight to ten weeks campaign with the aim of bringing the number of persons fully vaccinated to 600,000.
Speaking during the Ministry of Health’s virtual press conference on Wednesday, Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh said: “Yesterday’s shipment will help us move from managing this disease to hopefully having some degree of control over it, because in managing the disease, the public health measures, especially the harsh measures of lockdowns and close downs cannot be the permanent solution. The permanent solution has to be vaccinating as many people as humanely possible so that life as we know it can go back to some degree of normalcy.”
He noted that with the 400,000 persons that can be vaccinated with the new supply of Sinopharm, the country would be in a position where it would have 600,000 members of its population fully vaccinated, which is 60 per cent of the adult population, as roughly 200,000 persons have been fully vaccinated thus far.
“Think about how wonderful that is going to be. Saving jobs, saving lives, saving livelihoods, saving businesses, decreasing hospitalisation rates, you will not end up in a hospital. You will not be one of those statistics that add to the fatality numbers.
“With vaccinations, we can significantly slow if not eradicate, the number of severe hospitalisation cases and the fatality rate.”
He said going forward, the plan is to vaccinate between 20,000 and 25,000 persons daily.
“With the 109 health centres for the first time being a part of the grid, the six mass vaccination sites under the RHAs (Regional Health Authorities), and the private sector with their two current sites, we can vaccinate now twenty to twenty-five thousands persons per day. And these vaccine are going to be made available to all the different groups; working groups, retail industries via the Chambers of Commerce, places of religion and NGOs.
“The clarion call this morning is like the Prime Minister said, he took the vaccine that was available to him, he led by example. It’s for us now to take up that mantle and to follow that leadership.
Deyalsingh noted that during the planned eight to ten weeks vaccination campaign, if every person of the 400,000 who’s being offered the vaccine takes both shots, it would mean that the nation would have 600,000 persons fully vaccinated by the end of September.
“Ladies and gentlemen think about the benefits to the country. Think about the benefits for school children. Think about the benefits for public transport. Think about the benefits for the retail industry which is currently still closed. Think about the benefits for those who work in food and beverage, and we’re starting to vaccinate those people tomorrow.
“Think about the fact you could save lives, your life, your mother’s life, your father’s life, and not end up being a statistic the CMO or Dr (Avery) Hinds call out all the time about the number of people in ICU (Intensive Care Unit). You don’t want to be that statistic.”
Placing emphasis on the importance of being vaccinated, Deyalsingh said that all the evidence around the world is showing that almost all Covid-19 deaths in the United States now reside among unvaccinated persons.
“The current research in the United States is saying that 99.5 per cent of the deaths due to Covid in the United States, is among the unvaccinated. Maryland says a hundred per cent of June’s Covid deaths were among the unvaccinated, as early data shows similar trends nationally.”
Stating that this is scientific evidence, Deyalsingh said: “We continue to hear the legitimate concerns of persons about being vaccinated, and we take your concerns seriously. However, a lot of these concerns are being driven by conspiracy theorists, by online websites that have no scientific basis. So whilst we recognise your concerns as being legitimate, we continue to give you the evidence to show that we don’t want you to a hospital statistic.
“The onus in this fight against Covid is shifting from Government policies of lockdowns, of closure. The onus is now shifting to the population because we have vaccines in large amounts. So it is your responsibility to make informed decisions in your own interest to be vaccinated.
