Government needs to acquire more vaccines and a recommendation has been for these vaccines to be purchased using money from the Heritage and Stabilisation Fund (HSF).
This recommendation has come from the President of the Supermarkets Association of T&T (SATT), Rajiv Diptee.
Diptee said “We believe this country has the resources by way of our HSF to compete actively for the acquisition of a minimum of one million doses in the stride towards herd immunity.”
He added, while speaking to GML, that “As reported today (yesterday), we note El Salvador, a tiny Central American nation, has purchased 4.4 million doses from Pfizer by agreeing to transact that sale.”
Diptee believes that the HSF could be utilised by the State to make the purchase.
Diptee and his SATT were a part of a private sector team, inclusive of ANSA McAL, which was interested in importing vaccines privately.
However, Diptee said that accessing the vaccines privately is now “difficult, not impossible.”
Diptee said “vaccine success is no indicator of economic success; however, the marriage of both are deeply intertwined to give any prescription of hope to our nation.”
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