By Sue-Ann Wayow
FIVE thousand people are vaccinated in the Supermarket Association of Trinidad and Tobago (SATT) drive that ended on Monday.
Sinopharm Covid-19 vaccines received from the Ministry of Health were administered and SATT’s President Rajiv Diptee touted the drive as a success.
Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh announced on Saturday that 200,000 Sinopharm vaccines were expected to arrive in the country on Monday with another 5,000 being allocated to SATT.
Diptee who spoke to AZPNews.com at the vaccination site at Centre Pointe Mall, Chaguanas said he hoped that the system used which began on June 8, could be a model for the rolling out of vaccinations by other organisations.
He said, “It has really been a really successful drive. We have been inundated by additional requests from members of the public whom we unfortunately cannot assist. I think we have seen the capacity of this mass vaccination site, which is capable of through putting up to 2,000 vaccinations a day . Once we have the vaccines available we have the ability to do that and I think that we really set a model as a public/ private partnership to show people how it can be done and should the government want to move forward and look at model like this , I think they have the perfect textbook model in our site.”
SATT began the initiative in partnership with the Trinidad and Tobago Registered Nurses Association, the Trinidad and Tobago Red Cross Society, Trinidad and Tobago Medical Association and various non-governmental organisations (NGOs).
SATT has hired some 125 staff members to operate at the site and Diptee said there were about 50 volunteers.
Diptee added, “We have learnt quite a lot during the initial week of this process and we put things in place to really make it successful.”
Moving forward Diptee said more vaccinations would be appreciated and SATT would continue the initiative for as long as possible.
Diabetes Association to get 2,500 more vaccines
President of the Diabetes Association of Trinidad and Tobago Andrew Dhanoo also told AZPNews.com on Monday that approval was granted for an additional 2,500 vaccines.
The Diabetes Association is sharing the site at Centre Pointe Mall and had requested vaccines from the Minister of Health so they could assist members of their association.
The association was allocated 1000 vaccines which have been already administered.
Dhanoo said, “We are going to start getting that (the vaccines) on Thursday and we are going to be focusing on the elderly. Of course we will have other people living with diabetes with type one and all that, we are trying to get as many people as we can on our data base and on the outside vaccinated. Diabetes is one of the main comorbidities in which someone can get serious complications from Covid-19.”
He said the association was looking to increase from 10 testing stations at Centre Pointe Mall to 24 and is hopeful that more volunteers will come on board including persons willing to administer vaccines.
From tomorrow, the Association will be making a formal call for assistance and volunteerism as it prepares for Thursday’s vaccination.
Because of the association’s limited resources, Dhanoo said he was grateful to SATT for partnering with them to share the donated facility.
Both Diptee and Dhanoo said they were extremely grateful to have the use of the facility which had enough spacing capacity to do the vaccination while still being able to adhere to all health protocols.
Diptee described the site was a model template.
Dhanoo said, “ We are really happy that the Ministry of Health is partnering with us because they are taking advantage of the resources we have in the country available.”
Pleased but concerned
And President of the Chaguanas Chamber of Industry and Commerce (CCIC) Richie Sookhai said while he was pleased that Chaguanas was being used as a major vaccination site for the organisations, he was also concerned about the crowd gathering and the risk to Chaguanas burgesses regarding the spread of Covid-19.
He also told AZPNews.com that the CCIC had requested vaccines from the Minister of Health and ministry officials. He said if the chamber could receive at least 2,000 vaccines for its members, that will be appreciated.
Sookhai said the collaboration between the private and public sector was working and the private sector was more efficient in the rolling out of its vaccination procedure.
He added, “I am pleased that the Government has decided to open back hardwares, bookstores and art supply stores because it means that they have even confidence in opening up different sectors of the economy and this is a good thing. We should continue to work to have as many people vaccinated which would result in the flattening of the curve and therefore it will be safer to re-open other aspects of the economy.”
