By Prior Beharry
ONE person has passed away from Covid-19 after receiving the first dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine in Trinidad and Tobago.
This according to Epidemiologist Dr Avery Hinds at the Virtual media conference of the Ministry of Health on Wednesday in response to a question from AZPNews.com.
He said there was a report of someone who had the first jab and tested positive shortly after and passed away.
Dr Hinds said during the first two to three weeks after vaccination, a person’s immune system was still building its response and was still at moderately high-risk of contracting the virus if exposed.
“Even after full vaccination, the risk isn’t reduced 100% of being infected but the risk is reduced into the high 70s to 80s (in terms of percentage) of having severe illness.
“So people can still get the infection even after a first or a second jab but with the vaccine on board what you have is a great reduction in the severe illness, the need for hospitalisation and the risk of death.”