By Chantalé Fletcher
THE 54,000 school children who are not vaccinated for Covid-19 are “sitting ducks” for the Delta variant.
This according Minister of Health Terrence Deyalsingh during the Ministry of Health’s virtual presser on Wednesday.
Deyalsingh was responding to a question posed by AZPNews.com on children pleading with parents to get the Covid-19 vaccine.
He said based on Ministry of Education figures there were about 90,000 children between the ages 12 to 18 in Trinidad and Tobago who were eligible to take the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine.
Deyalsingh said 16.7% of this number were fully vaccinated and 39.4% had received a first jab.
He addedthat 60.6% or 54,000 children had not received the vaccine.
Deyalsingh called on parents to have their children vaccinated.
He said, “Many children between the ages of 12 to 18 years, who don’t buy into the conspiracy theory and who are more evidence based and do their own research on known scientific sites have been asking their parents, ‘please, I want to be vaccinated.’”
However, Deyalsingh said it was sad that many parents were not listening to their children
He said the 54,000 unvaccinated children were “sitting ducks for the Delta variant.”
The minister said at the vaccination drive for Pan Trinbago on Sunday, two teachers told him that children wanted to be vaccinated, but their parents have prevented them.
Deyalsingh recalled his primary school days when nurses came into the schools and vaccinated children without parents’ permission.
The minister added that times have changed and society have become litigious.
He said, “So those days of vaccinating children in the school setting was how we controlled things like mumps, measles, rubella, polio and all these things.”
Deyalsingh said “If you don’t want to be vaccinated, that is fine but give your children a chance of going back to physical school.”
The minister commended his colleague, the Minister of Education Dr Nyan Gadsby-Dolly on her presentation during the People’s National Movement (PNM) meeting on Tuesday on the importance of physical school for the development of children.
He said, “A child is losing out to much sitting in front of a screen. You may be educated but then she spoke about the education deficit and how many children got above 90% (at SEA) but also how many children scored 30% and below.”
Deyalsingh added, “Physical school is more than learning. It’s about building relationships, socialisation, playing sports, getting your school feeding programme meals, and it’s about your all-round developments, building relationships.
