Education Minister Nyan Gadsby-Dolly said the ministry would be in touch with principals and the public on Friday with details of the vaccine rollout for secondary school students aged 12 and over.

In a WhatsApp response to Newsday, Gadsby-Dolly said the ministry is happy that children in Trinidad and Tobago now join adults in having access to vaccines.

“We have been tracking the many countries that have been able to restart physical school, even in the presence of the delta variant, and a critical layer of protection has been the vaccination of children 12 and over, along with high rates of vaccine uptake in the adult population. We are happy that our children in TT now join the adults in having access to this opportunity.”

“The Ministry of Education is heartened by any measure of protection that can be offered to our children against covid19. Educational continuity is paramount, and though online teaching is the best arrangement that can be offered when physical school is not available, it is globally acknowledged that it cannot replace the face-to-face interaction that our young people so desperately need.”

Gadsby-Dolly made the statement after the arrival of 305,370 doses of the WHO-approved Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine donated by the US on Thursday.

The Prime Minister said on July 17 that should the US donate Pfizer vaccines, these would go first to the secondary school population.