Chief medical officer (CMO) Dr Roshan Parasram said that the benefits of taking the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine far outweighed the risk of blood clots linked to the vaccine, which he said was rare. “In terms of incidence what they’ve noted in the international population, it’s anywhere between four out of a …
Read More »Gov’t thanks ‘gracious’ India PM, as 40,000 vaccines arrive—after letter from Dr Rowley
The following is a press statement from the Ministry of Foreign and Caricom Affairs: On Tuesday 13 April 2021, 40,000 doses of Oxford/AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines arrived in Trinidad and Tobago. This was as a result of the gracious response from the Honourable Narendra Modi, prime minister of the Republic of …
Read More »Callers frustrated as gov’t struggles with vaccine requests; Dr Richards: a learning process
Despite months of preparation for the rollout of the Ministry of Health’s vaccination programme, health officials are struggling to manage the volume of requests for vaccines. Principal medical officer, Dr Maryam Abdool Richards, said: “We have received concerns from members of the population regarding the time taken to reach the …
Read More »Minister of health gets Covid-19 jab, says T&T set to surpass daily vaccination target
Minister of Health Terrence Deyalsingh received his vaccination against Covid-19 today. Before the jab, the health minister said that he was happy about the start of the vaccine rollout. “From all reports so far, barring a couple hiccups, which you will expect, things have gone relatively smoothly. We have been …
Read More »Daly Bread: Suspending my disbelief; vaccines, THA spending and ‘gambage’
Dinah Washington was an artiste at the very top of more than one genre. In one of her classics, she sang: ‘What a difference a day makes/Twenty four little hours/Brought the sun and the flowers/Where there used to be rain…’ Listening to songs pitching hope of rainbows and brightness ahead …
Read More »“We’re going back to where we were!” Deyalsingh re-introduces ban on ‘recreational sport’
The Trinidad and Tobago Government has re-introduced Covid-19 restrictions on ‘recreational sport’, with the immediate result that all sporting activity—outside of the training of national teams—will be illegal from Friday 2 April 2021. Minister of Health Terrence Deyalsingh, in a virtual press conference today, said the change was due to …
Read More »CMO explains plans for first shipment of AstraZeneca vaccines, which expire in 8 weeks
The first shipment of 33,600 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine arrived in Trinidad and Tobago on Tuesday. Minister of Health Terrence Deyalsingh said that with these shots, the health ministry will begin its vaccine rollout on Tuesday 6 April. According to chief medical officer Dr Roshan Parasram, the vaccines will …
Read More »Daly Bread: Jab Zeneca tun’ ol’ mas; how the gov’t botched its ‘vaccine roll-out’
It is now clear that the government was vainglorious in suggesting it had a definite, phased Covid-19 vaccination programme. It used the gift of vaccines, which it so ungraciously accepted from Barbados, to mamaguy us. The extent of the mamaguy was underlined when a television station ran again last week …
Read More »Deyalsingh absent as health ministry struggles to rebut Ansa McAl’s vaccine claims
Minister of Health Terrence Deyalsingh was absent from today’s Ministry of Health virtual media conference to answer questions that remain about how the business community has supported the government as it tries to acquire Covid-19 vaccines. Instead, the technical director of the health ministry’s epidemiology division, Dr Avery Hinds, said: …
Read More »Deyalsingh denies family link to vaccine purchases, threatens legal action
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 …
Read More »Daly Bread: A very unhappy anniversary; the impact of Covid-19 and vaccination tug-of-war
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 …
Read More »Caroni Covid-19 cluster causes jump in new cases; new ‘Antigua’ variant found in UK
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 …
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