Trinidad and Tobago has signed a confidentiality agreement with the United States, even as it is still negotiating for a gift of COVID-19 vaccines, Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley said yesterday.
Rowley made the comment as he was interviewed by his former Parliamentary opponent, Dr Bhoe Tewarie, during the latter’s morning show ‘Brighter Morning with Bhoe’.
The PM gave some details on the promised donation of vaccines from the US and the prices of vaccines overall.
“With respect to the price, I could give the population the assurance that we are doing well with the pricing situation. That’s the most I can say,” he said.
“We are paying a fairly attractive price. The cheapest vaccine available to us and the one with the prices disclosed is the vaccine that we got through the Covax.”
Rowley said US$20 per dose is a good price and anything lower than that is better.
The Covax facility is a not-for-profit system that includes some 184 countries investing as a unit to obtain vaccines in bulk.
“The Covax price is not $15, I think we are using $5 and that could be one of the reasons why the Covax is not being adequately supplied or replenished, because of that arrangement was upfront before the vaccines were approved and the price was set,” Rowley said.
The Prime Minister said once more vaccines eventually received the World Health Organisation approval, the price became the driving force.
“The first offering of the vaccine to the wealthy countries was in the order of upwards of 50 Euros a dose. That is where the companies were at,” Rowley said.
The confidentiality agreement, Rowley said, protects the seller, who will try to “extract” the price they could negotiate from the buyer.
“We had to sign three documents, one of which has already been signed, that is a confidentiality document, so all our dealings with the United States are under confidentiality cover,” he said.
Rowley said T&T is still negotiating with the US for a share of the promised vaccines.
“All along, the US has been very forthcoming with promising vaccines but that situation remains a negotiating position,” he said.
Caricom is represented by the Caribbean Public Health Agency (Carpha).
“Only the Carpha persons in the room have the details of the information but that officer is under confidential contract,” he said.
“The second document was signed off but the third document represents the supplier and that has not been signed yet.
“When that third document is signed, we should have had a meeting with the supplier a couple of days ago but that meeting was postponed and that should happen in the next few days, maybe even today (yesterday) and maybe after that, we would have completed the three documents and then the logistics and distribution could start.
“So we are waiting on that.”
Rowley said if the vaccines coming out of that negotiation can be used to vaccinate children, then they will be used to help get kids back to school.
“But until we have it in our hands from the United States, we can’t say that but we are looking in that direction,” he said.
Access to these vaccines will be useful, as the Covax facility is not receiving vaccines to distribute to its participants, he noted.
“That Covax mechanism is suffering,” Rowley said.
“It is not receiving vaccines to distribute to countries like ours. We were to get during this month of June, that third tranche, which would have taken us to 100,000 which we started expecting earlier in the programme,” he said.
Rowley said two Saturdays ago, Covax advised that the last tranche of 33,000 will no longer be coming in July but should be available in August. Rowley also defended the purchase of the China-made Sinopharm vaccine.
“So if we did not get another supply we would have been here with no vaccine now because we had used up all that we have got,” he said.
The Prime Minister said he still does not know where or how he contracted the COVID-19 virus, but suspects he may have come into contact with a contaminated surface.
Rowley tested positive for the virus back in April and has maintained he was not sure where or how he got the virus.
He reiterated that the 85 people around him were tested and all were negative. The Prime Minister tested positive for the virus just after the Easter weekend in April. He was due to be vaccinated that same time and had to forego the jab then. The Prime Minister was vaccinated on Tuesday.
“I was in Tobago for a full week and I interacted with a few people, which were family members, my household and few family members and some regular friends,” he said.
Rowley said he had no other symptoms other than a “runny nose.”
“And during my period of isolation I didn’t feel ill, I stayed completely in isolation,” he said.
Rowley said he was able to exercise and eventually tested negative and returned fully to work.—Renuka Singh