rishard.khan@guardian.co.tt & leeanna.maharaj@guardian.co.tt
Trinidad and Tobago is now the first country in the region to have received paediatric COVID-19 vaccines, after Spain’s donation of 43,200 doses for children ages 5 to 11 years old arrived yesterday morning.
“This is the first donation of paediatric vaccines in the region, and will be an essential and timely element of the national vaccination drive against the spread of the novel coronavirus, particularly given that they will protect this vulnerable section of the population,” a Ministry of Foreign and CARICOM Affairs release said yesterday.
The Ministry of Health plans to begin distributing the vaccines tomorrow and has asked that parents and guardians provide the following: a valid form of identification, the birth certificate of the child/ward and guardians must provide proof of relationship to the child.
Dozens of centres will be available in all regional health authorities.
The Ministry of Foreign and CARICOM Affairs said the donation was the result of “approximately two months of proactive and purpose-driven diplomatic and technical engagement between Trinidad and Tobago and Spain.”
The flight carrying the long-awaited doses arrived at the Piarco International Airport around 6.44 am yesterday.
Speaking to Guardian Media yesterday, the Paediatric Society president Dr Virendra Singh welcomed their arrival. He said the vaccines will not only protect children from the onset of COVID-19 but also against other successive conditions.
“They have seen a lot of severe spectrum paediatric disease from COVID-19 and the option to protect the child, given to families now, to me, is something that I wish it was here before,” Dr Singh said.
To date, at least 76 children have developed Multi-system Inflammatory Syndrome in Children (MIS-C) as a result of contracting COVID-19.
In February, senior paediatric emergency medicine specialist at the North-Central Regional Health Authority (NCRHA), Dr Joanne Paul, also noted an increase in post-COVID brain inflammation and encephalitis with at least four cases. She said COVID-19 vaccination helps to significantly reduce these subsequent health effects on children.
Yesterday, Dr Singh said the donation affords T&T an opportunity many other countries did not get and it should be capitalised on.
“At the end of the day, people have been given a choice ...(but) I think that they should accept it. I honestly feel that it’s an opportunity that other countries who are less fortunate than we have been ... we begged for vaccines, we have been granted vaccines that other countries still either couldn’t afford or access in front ours,” he said.