The US Embassy has said Trinidad and Tobago will receive a donation of 305,370 doses of the Pfizer covid19 vaccine, as part of a total of 907,920 doses to be donated to TT.
Foreign and Caricom Affairs Minister Dr Amery Browne said the vaccines are due to arrive at the Piarco International Airport at 8.15am on Thursday.
In a release, Browne said the arrival marks the largest consignment of donated vaccines to arrive in TT since the inception of the covid19 pandemic.
“The particulars of this generous donation from the US Government are the result of sustained dialogue, diplomacy, and negotiations involving the US government, the TT government, other Caricom member states, the Caricom secretariat, the Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA), and Pfizer. PM Keith Rowley, in his capacity as the then chairman of Caricom, initiated and led this effort to secure vaccines on behalf of TT and Caricom.”
Browne expressed the heartfelt appreciation of the government and people of TT to the government and people of the US.
He noted the critical roles played by Dr Rowley, US President Joseph Biden, Caricom secretary general Irwin LaRoque, CARPHA executive director Dr Joy St John, the US Embassy chargé d’affaires Shante Moore, and Ambassador Anthony Phillips-Spencer and other members of the TT team in Washington, DC.
“The TT government specially acknowledges the advocacy mobilised by the US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and US Members of Congress James Clyburn, Maxine Waters, Bennie Thompson, and Gregory Meeks in facilitating this donation of vaccines from the US government to the government of TT.”
Rowley had announced on July 17 that should Pfizer vaccines be donated by the US, these would go to the secondary school population.
“I want to say here now that is the only covid19 vaccine with WHO clearance on the use of children from age 12, which means our secondary schoolchildren population.”
He also warned the adult population, “If there are any of you out there waiting on the Pfizer (vaccine), as long as you are not in the secondary school population, you will be waiting.”
Responding to a question from Newsday about the Education Ministry’s plans to roll out the vaccine to secondary school students, Education Minister Nyan Gadsby-Dolly said, “No difficulty is envisaged in making the required arrangements. Parental consent must be obtained for minors.”
She said there are 80,177 secondary school students in the public school system. A 2021 Unesco Institute of Statistics report said there were 92,658 students between the ages of 12 and 16.
Some parents have expressed concern about allowing their children to be vaccinated, some going as far as to say they will take their children out of the school system if it is deemed mandatory.
The US Embassy said the donation is part of the Biden-Harris administration’s commitment to sharing its vaccines with the world, and President Biden’s promise that America will be the arsenal of vaccines in the global fight against covid19.
“The nearly 908,000 doses the US
