By Prior Beharry
EMANCIPATE yourself from Covid-19 and get vaccinated.
This was the message from Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley speaking at a press conference at the Anne Mitchell-Gift Auditorium, Scarborough Library Facility in Tobago, on Saturday.
He said, “Emancipate yourself from Covid and be alive for next Emancipation Day.”
Dr Rowley said so as he mentioned that Emancipation Day holiday will be celebrated on Sunday.
He did not announce the relaxing of any of the restrictions and made a call for more people to be vaccinated. Churches, beaches and retail outlets remain closed. Only groceries, hardware and related stores and food services are allowed to open. Food services are only allowed takeaway and curbside pick up.
The prime minister said the curfew under the State of Emergency remains at 9pm to 5am and said there will be no change over the long weekend with the Emancipation public holiday on Monday.
He appealed to people involved in personal services such as barbers and hair dressers to be vaccinated.
Dr Rowley said once the level of vaccination of these people are relatively high, maybe in a week or two there could the reopening of these businesses.
He said he will ask Minister of Finance Colm Imbert to provide greater assistance to bar employees noting that many of them do not have any record of employment.
He said, “The best response to the virus is a vaccinated population.”
Dr Rowley said in the first quarter of 2021 T&T had very little or no vaccines.
He said the country needed 900,000 people to be vaccinated and had in its possession about 1.2 million of two-dose vaccines which could vaccinate 600,000 people.
Dr Rowley said there was enough vaccines for just under half of the population. He said that 200,000 people in T&T will be naturally immunized who may have Covid and not know it while another 200,000 were too young to get the vaccine.
Minister of Health Terrence Deyalsingh said T&T has between 500,000 to 600,000 doses of the Sinopharm vaccine and about 20,000 of the AstraZeneca which were being used for second doses.
He warned about the highly contagious Delta variant of Covid-19 with a higher viral load and noted that it has not yet been discovered in T&T.
Dr Rowley noted that people have been complaining about the types of vaccine available in T&T which were not recognised by other countries and makes travelling difficult.
He said people should be vaccinated to save their lives and then consider travelling abroad.
Dr Rowley said, “Save your life and be a tourist after.”
He noted that he wanted to open schools in September but was watching the Covid-19 numbers in the country.
