Raphael John-Lall
Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh has said that additional primary vaccine doses will be administered to different categories of people who have already received two shots.
It will range from those who are over age 60 who have been vaccinated with Sinopharm, regardless of health status, to people who have cancer HIV, or have had transplants and have been vaccinated with other vaccines.
“T&T is now in a position to offer to certain selected groups of persons based on World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines an additional primary dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. We are encouraging persons not to refer to it as a booster. It is targeted to certain categories of individuals who have already been vaccinated. If you have not already been vaccinated, you can start the journey to be vaccinated,” Deyalsingh said yesterday during the Ministry of Health virtual press briefing.
He said it can be broken up into two categories of vaccines, the Sinopharm vaccines and other vaccines.
“The Sinopharm additional primary vaccine will be available to two categories of persons. Category one is those persons 60 years and over who have already received the full complement of the Sinopharm vaccines regardless of your disease state. So you can be 60 years old, healthy with no diabetes and under these guidelines, you’re eligible for your third dose. Your third dose can be administered up to six months after your second dose or soon as possible. The next category, regardless of age, if you are moderate to severely compromised, you can also access your third primary shot of Sinopharm vaccines as per WHO protocol.”
He then referred to people who fall under five different stages of health which includes those with cancer, transplant recipients, immune-deficient, HIV and those on Immunosuppressive therapy.
“If you fall into any one of these categories as determined by your physicians with a letter, you can access your third shot.”
He added that everything that he has said about these five categories applies to the AstraZeneca vaccine, Sinopharm, Pfizer and Johnson and Johnson vaccines.
“We will be administering, in the case of AstraZeneza, your third additional primary dose, for persons 18 years and over. In the case of Pfizer, your third additional primary dose is for persons 12 years and older. If you did the one-shot Johnson and Johnson, it is for persons 18 years and over.”
He said those over age 60 who have taken Sinopharm will be called by the Regional Health Authorities to make appointments to receive their third doses regardless of health status.
The others will be dealt with in the public health clinics.
Deyalsingh also gave an update on how many vaccines were brought into the country and how many are now available.
“We brought into the country 1,795,000 does of vaccines. To date, we have administered 1,240,948 does. It means we have a balance of 521,428. As far as expiry dates are concerned, AstraZeneca has short expiry dates. The last batch of AstraZeneca will expire at the end of November. Sinopharm vaccines expire in 2023. The Pfizer vaccines have been granted an extended lifespan until February 2022. Johnson and Johnson will expire in 2023.”
Chief Medical Officer Roshan Parasram spoke about the Lady Hochoy Home which is under quarantine. He said there are 68 residents there with 14 residents and 9 staff.
He added that under 69 per cent of the people there are vaccinated and it is because of that, there have been no hospitalizations so far.
Meanwhile, Deputy Director at the Medical Research Foundation (MRF) Dr Gregory Boyce, who also spoke, gave details about how HIV patients and how they have been affected by COVID-19.
He said it is very important for people who have HIV to be vaccinated.
“Are people with HIV susceptible to COVID-19? There is a possibility, yes. There is always a need for more data but the more we study this phenomenon the more we see a greater potential risk.”
