CUTT Head files Freedom of Info Request on Vaccines, Deaths

By Sue-Ann Wayow

HOW many persons in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) have received either a first dose or a second dose of a Covid-19 vaccine and how many persons who received either a first or second dose of a vaccine died because of Covid-19?

These are some questions being asked by head of the Citizens Union of Trinidad and Tobago (CUTT) Phillip Alexander who requested information from the Ministry of Health using the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).

The request was sent on Friday.

Alexander had previously raised several issues relating to the management of the Covid-19 pandemic by the government and the medical team.

In a statement on Facebook, Alexander again asked, “ Where are the doctors and nurses to help with a pandemic in a public health system that was overrun long before there was a pandemic? In the 22 months since we’ve known about Covid-19, what increases in the capacity to deliver public health were made? Is the parallel health sector half of the formerly struggling public health sector renamed? Why would we have fewer ambulances than we should have during normal times during a pandemic?”

Given the billions spent on public health during the pandemic, Alexander said there should be more Intensive Care Unit (ICU) beds, more ambulances and more staff and resources to deal with the pandemic.

In his FOIA request some of the information Alexander is asking for include:

• Total number of trained ICU nurses in the public health sector for the period 2018-2021;
• Number of persons in ICU for the period 2020-2021 that were the recipient of the first dose of the Covid-19 vaccine;
• Number of persons in the ICU for the period 2020-2021 that were the recipient of the two doses of the Covid-19 vaccine;
• Number of persons that were the recipient of the first dose  of the Covid-19 vaccine that have died between the period April 2021-November 2021 because of Covid-19;
• Number of persons that were the recipient of two doses  of the Covid-19 vaccine that have died between the period April 2021-November 2021 because of Covid-19;
• Number of new ambulances acquired  between the period March 2020 to November 2021; and
• Number of ICU beds purchased/acquired between the period March 2020 to November 2021.