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News Janelle De Souza 19 hours ago Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley at Saturday’s press conference at the St Ann’s Diplomatic Center. – Photo courtesy OPM
The Prime Minister apologized to the thousands of elderly and young people suffering from lifestyle-related illnesses who were turned away when they answered a call to go out and get vaccinated last Wednesday and Thursday.
On Wednesday, the health ministry began offering walk-in vaccination for those over 60 and younger with non-communicable diseases on a first-come, first-served basis.
Long lines and crowds ensued at vaccination sites across the country. People began to queue hours before the doors of vaccination centers opened, some as early as 5 a.m. breaking the curfew to advance in line. But with a limited supply of vaccines, the majority were sent home.
In response, Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh changed it to an alphabetical system but the number of vaccines distributed to each center would be limited to 50, far too few for demand and once again hundreds of people were turned away.
Speaking at a press conference at the Diplomatic Center in St Anns on Saturday, Dr Rowley admitted that walk-in vaccination or mass vaccination was a bad idea and took responsibility for it as head of the government.
He said it was not the fault of the technical staff at the facilities but a communication problem between the government and the general population, as many people were unable to register to be vaccinated.
Wednesday was a bad day. It was a bad day in that the government, through its agency, its Prime Minister, its infrastructure, tried to do too much with too little. It was a bad idea to try and fix the problem of the recording program not reaching everyone who wanted to be recorded by simply removing this recording restriction and replacing it with (what) one can. now call it a mass immunization exercise.
He apologized wholeheartedly, especially to the elderly who actually went out thinking they could probably experience pain and certainly the inconvenience and disappointment of going out and not being able to get the vaccine.
Rowley expected that at no time in the near future would the country receive a vaccine batch large enough to allow for a mass immunization program. Instead, the country would have a steady stream and the government would have to handle the segmented distribution.
The country received an additional 13,500 AstraZeneca vaccines from Grenada and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines on Friday and expects 200,000 of the 500,000 Sinopharm vaccines purchased in China on Monday.
The government has not yet been made aware of the exact date of arrival of the third shipment of vaccine from the Covax facility, nor of when and how much TT will receive from expected donations from the United States.
He pledged the ministry will ensure that a similar situation does not happen again and that available vaccines will reach those who need them most.
He added that no decision has been taken on opening the borders and the timing of the country’s reopening in the remaining three to five weeks and said a 19-hour curfew will likely be in place. for Labor Day June 19, as recently implemented.
In response, Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar said Rowley has misled the country over vaccines for months at the cost of lives and livelihoods. She said the fictitious deployment planted the seeds of civil unrest.
Hundreds of thousands of people are out of work, unable to feed their families, unable to pay their bills, or unable to pay their rent. A poverty virus is also sweeping our nation with no plan in place to revive our economy. Rowley must accept help from stakeholders and make changes to his failing team. We can’t have a repeat of 1990.
The worst part, according to the statement, was that Rowley had no plans to make any changes to save lives, including changing the medical experts advising the government in the past 15 months.
This story was originally published under the headline “PM sorry for the collapse of the mass vaccination campaign” and has been adjusted to include additional details. See the original post below.
The prime minister apologized to the elderly and to those who have had a negative experience trying to get vaccinated on Wednesday.
On Wednesday, the health ministry began offering walk-in vaccination on a first-come, first-served basis for those over 60 and younger with noncommunicable diseases.
Long lines and crowds ensued at vaccination sites across the country. People began to queue hours before the doors of vaccination centers opened and many people were turned away because they were not eligible or vaccines were limited.
The collapse of the vaccination program was changed the next day to just 50 jabs, and once again hundreds of people were turned back again.
Speaking at a press conference at the Diplomatic Center in St Anns on Saturday, Dr Rowley admitted that walk-in vaccination or mass vaccination was a bad idea and took responsibility for it as head of the government.
He said it was not the fault of the technical staff at the facilities but a communication problem between the government and the general population.
Wednesday was a bad day. It was a bad day in that the government, through its agency, its Prime Minister, its infrastructure, tried to do too much with too little. It was a bad idea to try and fix the problem of the recording program not reaching everyone who wanted to be recorded by simply removing this recording restriction and replacing it with what can be called now, an exercise in mass vaccination.
He apologized wholeheartedly, especially to the elderly who actually went out thinking they could probably experience pain and certainly the inconvenience and disappointment of going out and not being able to get the vaccine.
He pledged that the ministry will ensure that a similar situation does not happen again.
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