Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh said the country is now geared to take its response to COVID-19 to the next level as the focus shifts from virus management to virus control.
“In the last year we have managed the disease by closing borders, through physical barriers such as masking, social distancing, hand washing, asking people to stay home if they are sick and all other public health measures.
Speaking on Wednesday at the COVID-19 virtual press conference of the Ministry of Health, Deyalsingh said that other managerial tools used are limiting the assembly, closing rivers and streams and, at some point, closing most businesses.
“This is how you manage the disease in a pandemic, but managing the disease is different from what we want to go through now. Now we want to move from disease management – which is like a battle of attrition, today the virus wins, tomorrow I win – to disease control. When we talk about disease control, we now mean that we have some control over the COVID-19 virus. ”
He said that what they figuratively mean is that they can tell the virus what to do and where to go.
“How do we do that?” You can’t do that with public health measures, the borders are closed, that is, the management. To control now we need to move on to the next phase, which is about vaccinating people. That’s how we could control this virus. And if we can control the virus with a robust vaccination program, which we implement, then life as we know it or as we knew it before February 2020, could return to a certain degree of normalcy.
“It simply came to our notice then. So grandchildren can hug grandma so you can have a wedding so you can have a birthday party. The social interaction that we wanted and that we have lacked in the last 10 months, we can start to have some of them again “, said Deyalsingh.
He noted that they may look favorably on reopening the last parts of the business community in terms of nightlife, but to do so they should ensure that a number of people are vaccinated to control the virus.
“What we are starting to do from February, March and beyond is the vaccination effort to control the virus, so that life returns to a certain degree of normalcy. You may have to wear masks, you should distance yourself socially, wash your hands, but what I would like to see coming out of this … there are no more deaths. No more hospitalizations, no more people in intensive care units. We would like to see more and more children drop out of school. So these are the gains we would like to have.
The Minister of Health said that according to the timetable given by the World Health Organization, Trinidad and Tobago expects to receive the initial quota of vaccines either in late February or early March.
“We have made all the preparations to start the vaccination process. Once the vaccines are physically in Trinidad and Tobago, we anticipate the launch to begin between three and five business days after receiving the vaccines.
He said the 3-5 days will allow them to keep the vaccines and make all the necessary documents before sending them to the regional health authorities (RHA) and Tobago to have a coordinated national response in the first instance where vaccination of workers begins. in the field of health in the first line.
“We dedicate the first week of the program only to front-line health workers, who have the highest risk of exposure, such as those at COVID hospitals, those in accident and emergency departments and health units in the district.
“They receive because they are our most cherished and most exposed population.”
Claiming that RHAs are responsible for vaccinating front-line health care workers, Deyalsingh said the ministry has already asked RHAs to provide the names of those workers, who will then be given appointments to receive the vaccine.
“After that we start launching into non-communicable disease clinics, essential workers and so on.”