Renu­ka Singh

Op­po­si­tion Leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar is de­mand­ing that the Prime Min­is­ter take "im­me­di­ate" ac­tion and fire his Min­is­ter of Health, Ter­rence Deyals­ingh.

This fol­lows a mis­step by Deyals­ingh on Wednes­day dur­ing the roll­out of the first 2,000 COVID-19 vac­cines dos­es in T&T. The vac­cines were a gift from Bar­ba­dos which shared some of the 50,000 vac­cines it re­ceived from In­dia.

How­ev­er, at the me­dia con­fer­ence, Deyals­ingh said In­dia gift­ed the vac­cines to the re­gion and Bar­ba­dos was just the dis­tri­b­u­tion hub. It is un­clear why he said that or where he got that in­for­ma­tion.

By 10 pm Wednes­day night, the min­is­ter is­sued an apol­o­gy say­ing that he was mis­in­formed and the vac­cines were in fact a gift from Bar­ba­dos.

Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley al­so took to so­cial me­dia to thank Bar­ba­dos Prime Min­is­ter Mia Mot­t­ley for the vac­cine gift.

How­ev­er, Per­sad-Bisses­sar is in­sist­ing that Deyals­ingh be re­moved be­cause of his "false state­ments" on this mat­ter.

"At a press con­fer­ence on the roll-out of the vac­cines, Deyals­ingh claimed that they were a gift from the Gov­ern­ment of In­dia, which used Bar­ba­dos as a con­duit for vac­cine do­na­tions across the Caribbean. This has proven to be a flat out lie. The truth is Bar­ba­dos gen­er­ous­ly gift­ed Trinidad and To­ba­go a por­tion of vac­cines from their own stock," she said.

The Op­po­si­tion Leader said the fact that T&T must re­ly on re-gift­ed vac­cines "is a damn­ing in­dict­ment on the Gov­ern­ment".

"If we are to be­lieve the Min­is­ter of Health that he did not know the source of the vac­cines his own Min­istry ad­min­is­tered to front line work­ers, he is clear­ly in­com­pe­tent and un­fit for his job. It per­haps al­so ex­plains the sham­bol­ic man­ner in which the Kei­th Row­ley regime has bun­gled the re­sponse to the Covid -19 pan­dem­ic," she said.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar said while the rest of the world is mov­ing ahead with speedy vac­cine pro­grammes, this coun­try "has yet to ful­ly test the ma­jor­i­ty of our pop­u­la­tion for COVID-19".

" It is al­so un­clear just how and when T&T can ex­pect to be ful­ly vac­ci­nat­ed. At the cur­rent rate, T&T will be the last coun­try in the world to be ful­ly vac­ci­nat­ed," the Op­po­si­tion Leader said. "It is al­so be­yond puz­zling why the Row­ley regime has not ap­proached the Gov­ern­ment of In­dia for a sup­ply of vac­cines as did the Gov­ern­ment of Bar­ba­dos."

She said with the COVID -19 pan­dem­ic the most se­ri­ous health cri­sis T&T is fac­ing, "the pub­lic can have no trust in the Gov­ern­ment's re­sponse as long as Ter­rence Deyals­ingh re­mains in his post".

"He must go now," she said.