Trinidad and Tobago to finally get 40,000 doses of vaccine from India

Trinidad and Tobago: A shipment of 40,000 coronavirus vaccines from India is expected to reach Trinidad and Tobago in two weeks. The news comes days after a lot of political fuss between the government and opposition over vaccine procurement.  The vaccines were facilitated with the efforts of Gurdip Dev Bath, the vaccines were delivered at a time when Trinidad and Tobago was undergoing huge crises to the increasing COVID-19 cases. The doses will help the country lower the skyrocketing situation of the pandemic.

Gurdip Dev Bath who is a special representative of St Kitts and Nevis worked closely with the government of India to help the Caribbean countries get access to these vaccines. St Kitts and Nevis were among the first nations in the region to get vaccines from India with the efforts of Gurdip Dev Bath.

Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley announced on his Facebook page that the government of India have officially confirmed the shipment, and 40,000 doses of WHO-approved AstraZeneca vaccines will be sent in the coming weeks.

Also read: Trinidad and Tobago has lowest level of vaccination in Caribbean: UNC

Besides this, Prime Minister also declared that the People's Republic of China has also offered 100,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccines to the Government of Trinidad and Tobago to support and safeguard the health of the people of Trinidad and Tobago.

"The Government of Trinidad and Tobago has graciously accepted this generous offer of the Sinopharm vaccine as we anxiously await WHO approval," added Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley.

Also read: Trinidad & Tobago foreign ministry releases joint statement with Indian High Commission

Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley also expressed his sincerest appreciation and gratitude to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Xi Jinping for their generosity to the people of Trinidad and Tobago.

PM Dr Rowley also stated that appropriate adjustments are being made for the shipment of the vaccines to Port of Spain.

The official approval of the vaccine to Trinidad and Tobago from the government is a sense of relief for the government as the opposition leader Kamla Persad had been questioning the efforts of the current administration in the procurement of vaccine.

Also read: Kamla Persad Bissessar letter to PM Modi ignites truffle in Trinidad and Tobago

As many Caribbean countries have already received the Oxford Astrazeneca coronavirus vaccine manufactured in the Serum Institute of India, Trinidad and Tobago stand among the last ones.

Earlier this week, Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley had stated that the Indian High Commissioner had not said anything about assisting the government over the vaccine. Following Prime Minister's statement, the High-Commission of India had to give a solo statement referring to all the meeting with the T&T Foreign Minister on procurement of vaccine.

The issue got so heated up that the Minister of Foreign Affairs had to meet the Indian High Commissioner, and a joint statement was released soon after.