The Health Ministry said 5,501 people were vaccinated with their first dose of an available vaccine on Thursday.

Of these, 3,702 schoolchildren got their first dose of the Pfizer vaccine.

In its covid19 update on Thursday, the ministry said 7,171 adults got their second dose of an available vaccine, while three adolescents received a second dose of the Pfizer vaccine, having received their first dose overseas.

Eight people have died from covid19 over the past 24 hours, bringing the total to 1,208. Another 155 cases of covid19 have been detected in samples taken between August 15 and 18.

The people who died were four elderly men and three middle-aged women, all with comorbidities, and one middle-aged woman without comorbidities.

There are 5,768 active cases. Since March 2020, there have been 42,582 cases of covid19, of which 35,606 have recovered.

There are 318 people in hospital, 11 fewer than Wednesday. Of these, 84 are at the Couva Hospital and Multi-Training Facility, with 12 in the intensive care unit and 24 in the high dependency unit. There are 26 at the Caura Hospital, 48 at the Augustus Long Hospital, none at the St Ann’s Hospital, 47 at the Arima General Hospital, 35 at the new Point Fortin Hospital, 42 at the St James Medical Complex, 32 at the Scarborough Regional Hospital, Fort King George, and four at the Scarborough Regional Hospital, Signal Hill.

There are 96 people in step-down facilities, with none at the Claxton Bay Correctional Facility, 48 at UWI Debe, nine at UTT Valsayn, 23 at the Point Fortin Area Hospital, none at the Port of Spain field hospital, six at the Couva field hospital, none at the Port of Spain General Hospital, ten at the Tacarigua Facility, and none in Tobago.

There are 102 people in state quarantine facilities, and 5,199 in home self-isolation. There were 114 and 5,279 on Monday respectively. There are 244 recovered community cases and 36 people have been discharged from public health facilities.

A total of 294,951 people were tested to date, of whom 126,522 were tested at private facilities.

As of Thursday at 4 pm, 467,029 people had received their first vaccine dose. Of these, 115,303 received the AstraZeneca vaccine, 347,824 received the Sinopharm vaccine, 3,902 received the Pfizer vaccine, and 20 received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.

The number of people who had received their second dose was 346,441.