Trinidad & Tobago to donate AstraZeneca COVID Vaccines among Caribbean & Latin America nations

Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago: AstraZeneca COVID-19 Vaccines will be donated by Trinidad and Tobago to the countries in the Caribbean and Latin America.

The announcement of donation was made by the Minister of Foreign and Caricom Affairs, Dr Amery Browne.

Dr Browne cited that, “Trinidad and Tobago have made excellent progress toward sharing our excess AstraZeneca vaccines prior to expiry.”

Further, he noted that the Foreign Affairs ministry is working closely with the Ministry of Health and approached nations in the Caribbean and Latin America region with offers of sharing AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines with them.

“A series of ‘diplomatic notes’ were exchanged, and there has been extensive bilateral dialogue, all with the objective of avoiding any wastage,” the foreign affairs minister added.

He highlighted the vaccine sharing done by the Caribbean island with the other nations, stating that 2,500 doses of AstraZeneca vaccine were shared with the Bahamas, 3,000 doses with – St. Kitts and Nevis, and 4,500 doses with the Commonwealth of Dominica.

In addition, the nation is in the final stages of arranging other consignments for elsewhere in the Caribbean region in collaboration with the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO).

This program is being conducted by the Government of Trinidad and Tobago in the best spirit of regional solidarity, says the Minister.

Besides this, he also emphasized the importance of taking the COVID-19 vaccine and noted that ‘no nation would be safe from this contagious COVID-19 pandemic until all nations are safe’.

In addition to this, the island nation is going to be removed from the United Kingdom’s COVID-19 travel Red List from October 11, 2021, along with the other forty-seven nations, including Cuba, Guyana and Suriname. This means that now fully vaccinated travellers to and from Trinidad and Tobago will now be able to enter United Kingdom without quarantine.

While the other passengers who are not fully vaccinated with an authorized vaccine returning from a non-red destination must still take a pre-departure test, a day two and day eight test and complete ten days self-isolation, with the option of Test to Release on the fifth day.