People who have been infected with covid19 after their first shot can be assured that their second shot is reserved for their use.
Speaking on Saturday at a press conference at the Diplomatic Centre in St Ann’s, Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh said both the AstraZeneca and Sinopharm vaccines were available for those who got their first shots and needed their second.
Chief Medical Officer Dr Roshan Parasram explained, “If you had your first dose, you have an infection of covid19, you wait three months from the date of the covid confirmation that you’re positive, and you have your second dose which will be your booster. There is no need to restart the process. You just have your second dose.”
Parasram added that data suggested people with chronic kidney disease and renal dialysis patients may need a third shot.
“Some data has come to me from a specialist in that particular field as well, and the Pfizer vaccine has also applied to the WHO (World Health Organization) to consider having a third shot, not only for that group but for everyone for Pfizer. So, we await WHO’s determination and then we will follow on those.”
Also at the press conference, epidemiologist Dr Avery Hinds said there was a flattening of new cases over the past few weeks. Last week there was an average increase of about five per cent, and 1.6 per cent the week before.
Clearing up a “misunderstanding” from a previous press conference where he was interpreted as saying that elderly homes was one of the main sources of the rise in cases of covid19, Hinds said, “We did not say that care homes were driving the epidemic. What we said is that we did notice an increase in numbers of people above a particular age becoming ill and that several of those did actually arise out of clusters in care homes.”
He said the 25 to 49 age group has the majority of cases. And while 65.8 per cent of the people who died were aged 60 and over, 34.2 per cent of the people who died were under the age of 60. Over 80 per cent of the deaths had comorbidities.
He said, at last check, TT’s covid19 fatality rate was slightly above the global average at around 2.7 per cent. The health ministry reported eight deaths on Saturday, that took the total to date to 990.
Parasram said the country’s covid19 fatality rate has ranged between 1.7 and three per cent over the pandemic. The rate depended on several factors including vaccination and the category of people who were infected. For example, he pointed out statistics showed one in five people over 80 who got infected passed away.
Hinds reiterated that the ministry started monitoring deaths from June 8 and none of the 393 deaths occurred in fully vaccinated people, that is, people had two or more weeks after second shot. In any cases where a person who was vaccinated died, they contracted covid19 before they got their second shot.
Data on fully vaccinated people being hospitalised was still being compiled.
Principal medical officer Dr Maryam Abdool-Richards said since June 28 the gap between admissions and di
