By Sue-Ann Wayow
TRINIDAD and Tobago should receive its second batch of 77,000 vaccines from the COVAX facility in May says Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh.
Speaking in Parliament on Friday during the urgent questions segment, Deyalsingh said he was not aware of any delay of the proposed shipment from the facility.
Member of Parliament for San Juan/Barataria Saddam Hosein asked, “Can the Minister of Health confirm whether he has written to the COVAX facility to determine whether future shipment of the remaining 77,000 vaccines to Trinidad and Tobago will be delayed?”
Deyalsingh’s responded, “We have no such information at this point in time. So far, the other 77,000 doses according to COVAX and PAHO (Pan American Health Organisation) are on stream at this time to be delivered by May.”
The health minister had repeatedly said T&T would be receiving its first shipment of vaccines from the COVAX facility at the end of March. A COVAX live tracker indicated that 33,600 doses of vaccines will arrive in the country by next week Wednesday.
Hosein initially asked, “In light of the recent raid of an AstraZeneca vaccine facility in Italy, could the Minister state whether this would delay the shipment of vaccines to Trinidad and Tobago through the COVAX facility?”
Deyalsingh replied, “We have told this country on several times that the AstraZeneca vaccines we are getting through the COVAX facility in the first instance is manufactured in an AstraZeneca plant in South Korea.”
Over the weekend, a team of Italian police inspectors descended on a vaccine-manufacturing facility outside discovering 29 million doses of AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine which the company stated were undergoing quality control before being shipped to the developing world, and to European countries, the New York Times reported.
