PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad – Trinidad and Tobago health authorities Wednesday urged people 60 years and over to get boosted for the coronavirus (COVID-19) regardless of their health status.
Speaking at the Ministry of Health COVID-19 media conference, Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh said the three groups eligible for an additional Pfizer vaccine were those over 60, regardless of health status; healthcare workers, regardless of age and health status; and the immune-compromised, irrespective of age and health status.
He told reporters that the booster shots, which would be administered from Friday, are in keeping with the new guidelines from the World Health Organisation (WHO).
“WHO SAGE group (Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunisation) also our local TAG (Technical Advisory Group), I’m advised by the CMO has now signed on and signed off to a second booster or the fourth shot of mRNA vaccine,” he said.
“So persons who are fully vaccinated, who have been boosted can now get a fourth shot but the fourth shot will only be the Pfizer mRNA,” he said, noting that persons who contracted COVID-19 since they received their first booster dose will have to wait the customary three months before getting the second booster.
Deyalsingh said there are approximately 51,722 Pfizer vaccines on hand, which will expire at the end of June, and that boosters could be done as late as the end of June, while first shots for those who had not started the vaccination process would end on June 5.
The Health Minister said that while there was no guarantee when more vaccines would be imported, the 40,000 pediatric Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine doses for children five to 11 years have left Spain.
But he could not give a firm arrival date due to the numerous stops before being landed in Trinidad and Tobago.
Trinidad and Tobago has recorded 3,881 deaths and 156 509 infections due to the pandemic since March 2020.
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