Browne: T&T to get some of 60 million vaccines from US

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Trinidad and Tobago will receive some of the 60 million Astra Zeneca vaccines being donated by the United States.

This came as welcomed news as the country was facing a shortfall in its current vaccination efforts.

So far T&T has received 2,000 doses as a gift from Barbados, 33,600 from the COVAX facility and was gifted another 40,000 from India.

Another 67,200 is expected from COVAX but the delivery date is uncertain. This country also has a Non-disclosure Agreement (NDA) signed with China for Sinopharm vaccines and already put in a pre-order but that vaccine does not yet have World Health Organisation (WHO) approval. That approval is expected at the end of April.

According to international reports, the US was on track to have as much as 300 million additional vaccines in its coffers.

Foreign Affairs Minister Dr Amery Browne yesterday confirmed that T&T should receive some of those vaccines and conversations have been initiated to receive some.

“I have already had follow up dialogue with the US Embassy in PoS (Port-of-Spain) and with our Ambassador in Washington D.C,” Browne said in response to questions from Guardian Media yesterday.

“What I can say at this stage is that the Government and the people of T&T can anticipate that some of these vaccines would be availed to us,” Browne said.

Two weeks ago, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken held a fundraising event for COVAX, the facility that distributes coronavirus vaccines to low-and middle-income countries.

“We are very pleased with these developments, on behalf of Caricom and on behalf of all the developing countries that require vastly improved access to COVID-19 vaccines,” Browne said.

Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley in his capacity as Chair of CARICOM talked about the unequal distribution of the vaccine. Through Caricom Rowley wrote to US President Joe Biden to share its stockpile of vaccines on two occasions.

In the second letter dated March 19, which the Prime Minister shared on his social media pages yesterday, Rowley said that the Caribbean has been referred to as the “Third Border of the United States” by previous administrations.

Rowley highlighted the reports that the US was about to share its surplus vaccines with Canada and Mexico.

“The logic of pursuing preventative measures with neighbouring countries through administering the vaccine is irrefutable,” Rowley said in that letter.

“With similar logic and given the high incidence of transmission from travel, the concept of “neighbouring country” could be refined to include the Member States of CARICOM,” Rowley said.

Biden responded on April 1, a letter the PM also revealed on social media, saying that he remembered “fondly” conversations that he and Rowley shared during the 2016 Caribbean Energy Summit in T&T.

Biden said that while his first priority was the vaccination of the American people he would share the stockpile of vaccines.

“But I want to be clear that we will share vaccines, including through COVAX, when we are able,” Biden wrote.

Browne acknowledged Rowley’s efforts to access this cache of vaccines.

“The Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago, Chair of Caricom, has been a pioneering and steadfast champion for improved access to life-saving vaccines in collaboration with the World Health Organisation, his Caricom colleagues, and other leading advocates,” Browne said.

“The United States of America has clearly indicated that it is stepping forward in leadership on this critical global matter, and the follow-up work is ongoing to ensure that our region and nation benefit.

“This measure also sends a powerful signal to the rest of the developed world and it is my hope that more of the vaccine-rich countries would follow suit,” he said.

“It is noteworthy that this measure is precisely what Prime Minister Rowley requested on behalf of CARICOM in his correspondence to US President Joe Biden,” Browne added.

UNC calls for Govt to request vaccines

Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley also slammed the Opposition United National Congress (UNC) for using this promise of vaccines from the US to “promote themselves and create doubt and confusion”.

Rowley was responding to a media release by MP for Caroni East Dr Rishad Seecharan who called for the Government to not drop the ball on this matter and directed the PM to contact the US for its share of vaccines.

Despite previous media reports that Caricom and Rowley have been making these requests months before yesterday’s announcement of the donations, Seecharan is now saying that he was “calling on the Government of Trinidad and Tobago to make an immediate request for vaccines to the United States of America, through the Consulate based in Port of Spain”.

Seecharan added, “The Rowley Administration should not hesitate, as it did when India opened its vaccine supplies to the world in January 2021. We were the last of the CARICOM nations to write to the Prime Minister of India, asking for assistance with our Covid-19 Recovery.”

However, the Prime Minister, said that the UNC “pay very close attention” to what he is doing.

“But they deliberately choose a strategy to confuse, misinform and lie only to make things look bad or worse than they are and then blame the Government to fit their political agenda of ambition without substance,” he said yesterday.