By Sue-Ann Wayow
TRINIDAD and Tobago has a confirmed order of 875,000 doses of Covid-19 vaccines from the African Medical Supply Platform says Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh.
Deyalsingh speaking at a Ministry of Health’s virtual media conference on Wednesday gave a detailed update regarding the country’s receipt and non-receipt of vaccines.
He said, “African Medical Supply Platform as of April 19, T&T order is firmly confirmed and once delivery of vaccines commence will be shared equitably to all participating countries.
“Our current confirmed order with the African Medical Supply Platform is Pfizier 250,000 doses, Johnson and Johnson is 625,000 doses, which will give in total 875,000 doses.”
While there were concerns with the Johnson and Johnson’s vaccine especially in the United Kingdom, “once they have cleared regulatory, it is one jab vaccine,” the minister said.
Deyalsingh added that the producer of the Janssen vaccine at this time was not entering into any bilateral talks with any country that is part of COVAX. Effective April 13, there was a pause in the use of the vaccine that is produced in the United States (US). Another emergency meeting to discuss the vaccine is expected to be held on Friday with the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP).
The Government has also signed non-disclosure agreement for SinoPharm vaccines from China of which bilateral talks were advanced according to Deyalsingh.
He said an agreement which was signed on April 14 with India’s Bharat Biotech International Limited which makes the Covaxin vaccine.
From the COVAX facility, Deyalsingh said information received recently was that in the past few days that another order was expected to arrive in May and confirmation will be soon.
And India’s donation of 40,000 Covishield vaccines were received the minister said.
He added that although Pfizer has confirmed their order since March 9, another meeting was expected to be held this week.
AstraZeneca, created by the University of Oxford, has indicated that they will not be able to supply bilaterally until possibly September and Moderna Inc would not be able to supply until the fourth quarter of 2021, the minister said.
Deyalsingh said, “Serum Institute of India cannot now possibly even provide vaccines for their domestic population. At one time, they were supposed to be the vaccine manufacturer to the world.
“They are in fact the largest vaccine manufacturer and we continue to be in bilateral talks with them and also COVAX.”
He said a meeting was held with Sanofi on January 21 and their clinical trials were still ongoing with the World Health Organisation (WHO).
As at April 20, 19,475 persons were vaccinated in Trinidad and Tobago.
