Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh has revealed that when the shipment of Covid19 vaccines arrive in TT, children will not be vaccinated.
At his ministry’s virtual media briefing on Monday, Deyalsingh said, “We will not be vaccinating schoolchildren in this phase, simply because there is no trial data that says you could use the vaccines in children under 18. So no schoolchild will be vaccinated; no person under 18 will be vaccinated.”
He said the phased vaccination programme will allow TT to build on its experience and to readily identify any side effects.
Deyalsingh said healthcare workers, police and firemen, citizens who are most vulnerable socially and economically and most exposed will be first to get the vaccine, along with patients with non-communicable diseases and those with weakened immune systems.
The second phase, he said, will be mass vaccinations, done at three or four sites, working with the Medical Association.
Deyalsingh said TT hopes to inoculate 20 per cent of the people within a year, or 280,000 people from March 2021-March 2022.
He said “Some 33 per cent of the population will be vaccinated in the long term.”
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