On Tuesday morning a shipment of 800,000 Sinopharm vaccines is expected to arrive in TT from China, which would trigger a mass vaccination programme starting on Friday according to the Prime Minister.
He said with the approximately 1.2 million doses of covid19 vaccines the country received, including gifts from India, China, Caricom members, and purchases from the Covax facility and China, a total of about 600,000 people could be fully vaccinated.
Speaking at a press conference at the Diplomatic Centre in St Ann's, Dr Rowley reminded TT was also expecting the first shipment of 200,000 doses of Johnson and Johnson's one-shot vaccine from the Africa Medical Supply Platform in July.
He added that there was still no confirmation of the amount or brand of vaccine TT would receive from the US.
'If any comes (from the US) then we are completely covered. If none comes then we will wait to see how much we get from the other two streams (of supply). But we do have access now in a way we never had before and I think that allows us to move forward in making some decisions.'
He said with a population of 1.4 million people, the overall aim was to vaccinate 900,000 people. That number did not include children, those who got infected and developed their own immunity, and those who can not take it for medical reasons.
'I want to say to the country that we've travelled this path together. Its been very very difficult. From an economic standpoint it has been virtually disastrous. From the personal standpoint for very many people who live at the edge of the economy, it has been extremely difficult. As for some people who lost family members it has been extremely painful.'
He expected that by the beginning of August all the vaccines available at that time would be used and by September TT would be in a good position having achieved its goal of 900,000 fully vaccinated people.
'The government of TT today has done what the government set out to do, which is to provide the population with the vaccines that are required and the population is now required to use those vaccines to protect itself on an individual basis.'
Hours before the press conference, Chinese Ambassador Fang Qiu announced in a Facebook that the Sinopharm vaccines would arrive next week.
He wrote: 'Heartened to update that 800,000 doses of Sinopharm vaccines procured by the T&T government have been ready for delivery, and will be arriving in TT early next week, taking the total donation and procurement of Chinese vaccines in TT to 1.1 million doses.
'Three batches in a row in less than 60 days! China has prioritised and expedited vaccines provision to T&T. My heartfelt thanks to all people and agencies making this possible. I'm sure these timely vaccines will assist with TT's mass vaccination drive, especially as it's reopening its borders. Standing together, we can end this pandemic soon.'
The Prime Minister said non-disclosure agreements prohibited Government from revealing how much the Sinopharm vaccines cost. In May, Finance Minist
