In less than a week, the Gov­ern­ment has sought to mend bridges with the In­dia High Com­mis­sion­er and busi­ness sec­tor on the ac­qui­si­tion of COVID-19 vac­cines, as it has come to the re­al­i­sa­tion un­nec­es­sary bat­tles will just not cut it at a time that re­quires an all hands on deck ap­proach.

With no clear-cut plan or the ar­rival date of vac­cines in this coun­try, the re­al and im­mi­nent dan­ger posed by COVID-19 re­mains. This was all the clear­er yes­ter­day when the death count from the virus rose by one to 141. The last death was record­ed on March 8.

There is no doubt that un­less and un­til a prop­er vac­ci­na­tion roll­out be­gins, this coun­try re­mains at the mer­cy of a virus that knows no bounds.

So, it is heart­en­ing to see that we have mend­ed bridges with the High Com­mis­sion­er, who can use his in­flu­ence in Del­hi to help this coun­try get some vac­cines. What­ev­er we get will be far more than we cur­rent­ly have, bear­ing in mind that all we have re­ceived thus far are the 2,000 dos­es gift­ed from the gov­ern­ment of Bar­ba­dos.

It was al­so heart­en­ing to hear the Health Min­is­ter com­mit to en­gag­ing the pri­vate sec­tor in the search for vac­cines for Trinidad and To­ba­go.

Last Thurs­day, the Prime Min­is­ter at­tempt­ed to en­gage the pub­lic on the Gov­ern­ment’s re­jec­tion of a busi­ness group’s ap­proach to as­sist in ac­quir­ing vac­cines. How­ev­er, does the Prime Min­is­ter re­al­ly think the cit­i­zens care who gets the vac­cines at this stage? For the av­er­age cit­i­zen, it does not mat­ter how the vac­cines get here. All they want is that this coun­try joins our CARI­COM neigh­bours on the list of coun­tries ap­proach­ing herd im­mu­ni­ty sta­tus. Cit­i­zens are not in­ter­est­ed in games­man­ship.

There is anx­i­ety among the pop­u­la­tion and all they want to do is to get back to a sense of nor­mal­cy. They want to know there is a tan­gi­ble plan to get vac­cines. They want to know the econ­o­my will be re­opened, schools will re­turn to in-per­son teach­ing and the re­turn to full pro­duc­tiv­i­ty in work­places. They want to know there will be a car­ni­val next year and that the bor­ders will be re­opened. They want their lives back from the year that COVID stole from them. It is not too much to ask or to hope for.

It is com­mend­able, there­fore, to hear we seem to be mov­ing in the right di­rec­tion. In the words of Health Min­is­ter Ter­rence Deyals­ingh, “I am pleased to say that Mr An­tho­ny Sab­ga III of Ansa and Mr Ra­jiv Diptee of SATT (Su­per­mar­kets As­so­ci­a­tion of T&T) and my­self have de­cid­ed to be for­ward-look­ing. In this vein, we will be work­ing to­geth­er to pro­cure safe WHO-ap­proved vac­cines for T&T if avail­able to the pri­vate sec­tor. We as­sure the pub­lic that if and when there is a vi­able out­come, we will alert the pub­lic.” So­lace in­deed for a coun­try so des­per­ate­ly wait­ing for their dose of hope.