The Shop and Vaccinate initiative by the North West Regional Health Authority began on Saturday at three shopping centres in west Trinidad and will continue next Friday and Saturday.
The Falls at West Mall, Starlite Shopping Plaza, and Long Circular Mall all facilitated the NWRHA at vacant shops in their malls so customers and the general public could get vaccinated with Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen vaccines from 1-6 pm.
At Long Circular, the site is opposite Bluegrass on the ground floor; at Starlite, on the ground floor next to Pita Pit; and at the Falls, the site is in the mezzanine at the eastern end next to Stefano’s.
Dr Antony Parkinson, director of health at the NWRHA, was at Long Circular when the vaccination site opened. He said all the sites had doctors, nurses, a clerk and cleaners to keep surfaces constantly sanitised because “we don’t want to spread anything here.”
He added that an ambulance was stationed at the mall in case anyone needed assistance but it would serve all three sites.
Parkinson said he was pleasantly surprised to find people waiting for the space to open to be vaccinated and the NWRHA would remain at the site every Friday and Saturday until the Ministry of Health said otherwise.
[caption id="attachment_911219" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Melissa John receives the single dose of Johnson & John vaccine at Long Circular Mall, St James on Saturday. - PHOTO BY ROGER JACOB[/caption]
“We hope to get people who are on the borderline, that they would see it and pass in to get one jab and done. If we could get people vaccinated and block the delta variant from spreading in TT, that would be fantastic.”
Reports indicated that all three sites had a steady flow of people for the first few hours but the numbers slowed down significantly soon after.
Darlene Easton, the manager at Starlite Shopping Plaza, said the NWRHA approached George Aboud and Sons Ltd about facilitating the drive so the RHA was given a space free of charge.
The vacant store, separated into waiting, screening, vaccination and observation areas, is on the ground floor to facilitate the elderly and disabled people.
“George Aboud and Sons Ltd, who owns Starlite Shopping Plaza, recognise the need for vaccination in order for our country to reopen and for our economy to start recovering. As a corporate citizen, when we were approached, we were very happy to be able to facilitate them and help in any way we could.”
Jennice Price, marketing manger at The Falls at West Mall, said since the start of the pandemic the company has taken customer and tenant safety seriously by constantly maintaining a clean and safe environment so people could shop comfortably. Facilitating the NWRHA was another step in that direction.
“We agreed because of corporate social responsibility. We are in a pandemic and whatever we can do to help, obviously we’ll be there to help for sure.”
Leslie Grennum, marketing manager at Long Circular, said it
