By Sue-Ann Wayow
The World Health Organization (WHO) is expected to meet in the first week of December to discuss a third dose of the Covid-19 vaccine.
Whatever decision is made concerning the additional dose, Trinidad and Tobago will adopt that policy.
Chief Medical Officer Dr Roshan Parasram said on Saturday that guidelines suggest that boosters be administered six months and beyond after receiving the second shot of a two-dose regime.
Speaking at the Ministry of Health’s Covid-19 update on Saturday, Dr Parasram said the majority of people in T&T would have begun receiving vaccination outside of the first 2,000 healthcare workers in the first week of April 2021.
They received AstraZeneca which means their second dose would have been somewhere around June, he said.
The CMO explained, “A booster picks up where your immunity begins to wane and usually most of the studies are showing that happens, six months, seven months after the second dose.”
Dr Parasram said, “In T&T, that will mean that people will be receiving boosters if and when it is approved after December or late December into early January for the first batch of people who received their vaccines in April.”
He added, “We look out for WHO’s go ahead or approval sometime in December and if and when they do approve, of course, T&T will align to WHO’s policies, as well go forward with our booster doses.”
