With an aim to vaccinate about 300,000 people in ‘the shortest possible space of time’ the Minister of Health, Terrence Deyalsingh has announced that his ministry will be ramping up its vaccine plan and the number of mass vaccination sites across the country.
He said there will be a specialized plan to vaccinate employees of many sectors and at yesterday’s media briefing at the Diplomatic Centre, he broke down the list of sectors and the vaccine allocations.
They are as follows:
*Tobago – 10,000 doses
*The National Security Ministry will receive 6,000 doses – 3,000 for prisoners.
*Transportation workers, including maxi and taxi drivers — 5,000
*The agricultural sector — 10,000
*Teachers — 5,000
*Other ministries — 20,000
*The food and beverage sector — 20,000
*Janitorial staff — 5,000
*Tertiary education institutions — 20,000
*Religious clergy — 2,000
*Banks and Credit Unions — 5,000
*Supermarkets and Distributors — 15,000
*Pharmacy workers — 2,000
*Manufacturing — 5,000
*The Diabetes Association and Coalition of Non-Communicable Diseases — 5000
*Construction — 10,000
*Special Groups, including persons with physical and mental disabilities, the visually-impaired etc — 2,000
*Funeral homes — 500 to 1,000.
Deyalsingh added that his ministry was also going to deepen its relationship with the private sector “by bringing in six new mass vaccination sites.”
The new mass vaccination sites for this specialised drive will be located at the Diego Martin Sporting Complex, NAPA, in Tunapuna, UTT’s Corinth Campus in St Madeleine, the Penal Powergen Station, and the Couva/Pt Lisas Chamber of Commerce Building.
These, he said, will complement the pre-existing Divali Nagar site, as well as the Supermarket Association’s site in Chaguanas.
They will also partner specifically with Rotary Clubs and the Trinidad and Tobago Chamber of Commerce.
According to Deyalsingh, “They will help us with matters like IT, data entry and so on.”
He also stated that all 109 Regional Health Authority centres will receive vaccines and they will be adding 64 sentinel physicians who work with the Ministry of Health, to monitor and administer vaccines in the current vaccination drive.
The 64 sentinel physicians will receive 15,000 vaccines as part of the drive.
As it stands now, 219,763 have received their first jab, while 105,586 people are now fully vaccinated.
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