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SOME 33,600 initial doses or about one-third of this country's first allocation of covid19 vaccines from Covax arrived at Piarco Airport on Tuesday evening, the Ministry of Health has confirmed.
It comes after 18 more people tested positive for covid19 over a 24-hour period, as relayed by the ministry in its 4 pm covid19 update on Tuesday, taking the total number of active cases to 254 at the last count.
The Covax vaccines arrived a day earlier than the March 31 delivery date, noted on the Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO) website set up to track deliveries of Covax vaccines.
A high level official at the ministry said media was not permitted to cover the arrival of vaccines. Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh, the Chief Medical Officer Roshan Parasram, representatives of PAHO and others were on hand to collect them.
In an interview shortly after touch-down Deyalsingh said they reached promptly at the expected 6.10 pm arrival time, following which they were inspected and transported for storage before reaching the 21 designated vaccination sites across both islands.
In early March, Deyalsingh said TT will be paying only US$343,162 out of a total of $504,000 cost for the 100,800 AztraZeneca vaccine doses, which will start being delivered by the end of the month.
Upon the arrival of vaccines, Deyalsingh said in an interview the vaccines reached at the expected 6.10 pm arrival time. They were inspected and transported for storage before reaching the 21 designated vaccination sites across both islands.
The outstanding balance will be paid through an EU grant to the Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA) for the purchase of vaccines.
Central and South American countries began receiving vaccines on March 1 through Covax, which PAHO describes as an "unprecedented global effort between CEPI (Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations), Gavi, Unicef, PAHO, and WHO (World Health Organisation) to ensure equitable access to immunisation throughout the world.
On PAHO's website, it says, "The Revolving Fund is the mechanism designated by Covax to procure the vaccines on behalf of the countries in the region."
CEPI refers to the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, while Gavi is a public–private global health partnership designed to increase access to immunisation in poor countries.
Over the past few days, countries including Suriname, Belize, Guyana and several other smaller states began receiving their initial doses of the vaccine.
Jamaica was the first Caribbean country to receive vaccines from Covax on March 15.
PAHO announced that, "In total, 15 Caribbean countries are expected to receive just over 2.1 million doses of Covax vaccines by May. These include Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, the Dominican Republic, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, St Kitts and Nevis, St Lucia, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, and TT.
"Six of these countries (Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, St. Lucia, and St Vincent & the Grenadines) will receive the vaccines free of charge."
On Monday, a release from the delegation of the European Union to TT highlighted the EU's role in the distribution of the vaccines, saying, "The EU intends to share part of these vaccines with our partner countries in parallel to accelerating the EU’s own vaccination plans."
The release also noted a statement from 27 EU leaders following last week's European Council meeting which read: "The European Union will continue to strengthen its global response to the pandemic. Work on setting up a vaccine-sharing mechanism must be taken forward rapidly so as to complement and support Covax’s leading role in ensuring universal access to, and deployment of, vaccines.
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