Health

Minister of Health Terrence Deyalsingh has issued a statement denying any connection with medical supplier VARY Medical and Scientific Company. In a Facebook post on 21 March, the page Braveboy Report suggested that the government was improperly ordering Covid-19 vaccines from Hong Kong through the local medical company. The post …

Last week marked the first anniversary of the declaration by the World Health Organisation (WHO) that the Covid 19 virus had become a pandemic.  This was a very unhappy anniversary because well over two million persons worldwide have since died. Added to the direct consequence of death, the virus has …

Tobago is getting ready to see a jump in travellers from Trinidad over the Easter holiday. At today’s Ministry of Health virtual media conference, the county medical officer of health (CMOH) for Tobago, Dr Tiffany Hoyte, said villas were predicting a 98% occupancy rate, while apartments and hotels were expecting …

A new variant of the Sars-CoV-2 virus has been identified in the UK by travellers from Antigua. This variant, which is not yet considered a variant of concern, contains mutations associated with higher transmission and lower vaccine efficacy. Speaking at the Ministry of Health’s virtual media conference, University of the …

‘[…] Despite low Covid-19 stats that continue to trend downwards, the health minister has said that it is vaccinations that would lead to a return to life before Covid-19 restrictions … ‘[…] Whether that timetable is possible given the problems the government has had sourcing vaccines remains to be seen. …

The Ministry of Health today reported seven new confirmed cases of Covid-19 in the country. The daily rolling seven-day average for new cases is now below three cases per day. Speaking at the health ministry’s virtual media conference, chief medical officer Dr Roshan Parasram said that low case numbers were …

Minister of Health Terrence Deyalsingh announced that the government now expects 33,600 AstraZeneca vaccines to arrive in T&T at the end of March, and not 100,000 as was previously promised. The government had announced on 30 January 2021 that they were expecting between 100,000 and 120,000 doses of the vaccine …

Trinidad and Tobago’s goal is to drive transmission of the Sars-Cov-2 virus—the virus that causes Covid-19—down to zero. This, according to the Ministry of Health’s technical director of the epidemiology division, Dr Avery Hinds. Speaking at the health ministry’s virtual press conference, Dr Hinds acknowledged that achieving zero transmissions would …

Minister of Health Terrence Deyalsingh said he was disappointed that the leader of the opposition, Kamla Persad-Bisessar, had requested a donation of Covid-19 vaccines from the government of India. In a letter dated 23 February 2021, addressed to the prime minister of India, Narendra Modi, Persad-Bisessar wrote that Trinidad and …

Several news outlets, including the Miami Herald, have reported that India plans to ship more than 500,000 doses of Covid-19 vaccines to Caricom countries as a humanitarian donation. But Minister of Foreign and Caricom Affairs Dr Amery Browne said Trinidad and Tobago has not received any such offer of aid. …

Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley described the marketplace for vaccines as ‘topsy turvy’ during his statement at the Ministry of Health’s virtual media conference on Monday. The prime minister said that for smaller countries like Trinidad and Tobago, accessing the vaccine directly from manufacturers was a challenge. “If you were …

“[…] The Trinidad Guardian went so far in its editorial to opine that Trinidad and Tobago’s decision to wait on the ‘validation’ of the World Health Organization before exploring India’s AstraZeneca option ‘seems unnecessary’.  “[…] If we offered unapproved vaccines and persons became ill or died as a result, the …