(Newsday) – From Monday, the Ministry of Health will begin administering to the public the estimated 82,000 AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine donated by Canada.
On Saturday, at the ministry’s Covid-19 media conference, Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh said the first doses will be issued at the mass vaccination sites throughout the country.
He said, “31,330 of these are expiring by the end of August, so we have just under two to three weeks to get these vaccines out into arms.
“The other 50,700 will be expiring at the end of October, so it fits in basically with the eight-12-week window that we have between AstraZeneca’s first dose and second dose.”
Tobago has been allocated 4,000 doses and rollout was expected either Tuesday or Wednesday, Deyalsingh said. He added that a call centre and online appointment systems will become available from Sunday for the public to book vaccinations.
Deyalsingh said while walk-ins will be accommodated, priority will be given to people with appointments.
The call centre contact is 800-VACC (8222) and online appointments can be made via www.ttvaccine.com
Deyalsingh added that public servants who are yet to receive their second dose of AstraZeneca will be accommodated at the National Racquet Centre and UTT.
Sinopharm first dose shots, he said, will continue to be administered at all health centres, the Frankie Boodram Wallerfield International Raceway drive-through site and the Heliport in Chaguaramas drive-through site. TT bought 800,000 Sinopharm doses from China, which it received on July 13.
