By Sue-Ann Wayow
ANOTHER 150,000 doses of the Covid-19 Pfizer vaccine are expected to arrive in Trinidad and Tobago and will be coming in two tranches of 75,000 each.
Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh announced on Wednesday that the first tranche should arrive at the end of February.
He made the announcement during the Ministry of Health’s virtual Covid-19 update on Wednesday.
Last Saturday, chief medical officer Dr Roshan Parasram said a meeting was scheduled for Monday with officials from Washington concerning the third batch of Pfizer vaccines that was promised by the United States Government. Trinidad and Tobago already received two tranches, and the second set of doses received will expire at the end of February. He said there were 286,000 of these vaccines.
For those who were concerned about the availability of the second dose if they went for their first dose this month, Deyalsingh said, they can be administered their first Pfizer shots this month.
He said, “The doses that we have actually expire at the end of February and with that in mind, we did not want the Pfizer part of the vaccination programme to stop.”
Deyalsingh said, “I am happy to report that in the meetings that we had yesterday, we have sourced another 150,000 doses of Pfizer, that will come in in two tranches of 75,000 doses each, the first tranche will arrive hopefully before the end of February so we continue our Pfizer vaccination thrust.”
On December 8, 2021, the US Government announced the donation of 304,200 doses of the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine, which represented the second tranche out of a total 907,920 to be donated to the people and government of Trinidad and Tobago.
That donation brought the total number of Pfizer vaccines that the US has donated to this country to 609,570 out of a total of nearly 908,000 doses.
Deyalsingh said that T&T currently has 768,930 Covid-19 vaccines.
He broke it down as follows:
- 278,000 Sinopharm to expire in June 2023;
- 204,432 J&J to expire in May and June 2023: and
- 286,000 Pfizer to expire in February 2022.
