One person contracted COVID-19 and died after receiving two shots of the COVID-19 vaccine.
Epidemiologist Dr Avery Hinds confirmed the death at yesterday’s Ministry of Health update on the virus.
The individual, Hinds said may have contracted the virus in between the first and second shots of the vaccine.
“So they were still basically on that first dose and that level of immunity when they contracted the disease and subsequently became ill enough to pass on,” Hinds said.
Hinds reinforced that a person is not considered fully vaccinated until two weeks after receiving the second shot of the vaccine and even after that, all health protocols including masks, social distancing and clean hands must be followed.
“So even if you had the second shot you’re not immediately benefiting fully from that immune response,” he said.
Hinds said the vaccine “does not 100 per cent prevent” the virus but reduces the risk of becoming very ill if infected.
Last month, Hinds confirmed that four people contracted the virus within two weeks of the first jab.
Minister of Health Terrence Deyalsingh was present at the meeting yesterday and announced plans to vaccinate between 20,000 and 25,000 a day through the 109 health centres and the six mass vaccination sites and the private sector.
“We can vaccinate now twenty to twenty-five thousand persons per day,” he said.
Deyalsingh said once these 400,000 vaccines have been administered, it would total 600,000 people vaccinated in T&T.
The country received 800,000 Sinopharm vaccines on Tuesday but despite this massive shipment, Deyalsingh said that the health centres would not be facilitating walk-in vaccinations.
“The persons coming in via the various sectors, we make appointments for them,” he said.
Deyalsingh also said that people will be contacted using the existing databases through the Chamber of Industry and Commerce, agricultural agencies, NCD alliances, CDAP and the T&T Association of Retired Persons (TTARP).
Head of the North Central Regional Health Authority Davlin Thomas was the third person at yesterday’s meetings and said that some 692 doctors and nurses participated in a retraining exercise at the Intensive Care Unit Critical Care Boot Camp.
Source :CNC 3