General manager, Primary Care, Tobago Regional Health Authority, Dr Roxanne Mitchell said the authority will soon begin vaccinating staff and residents at homes for the elderly throughout the island.

She said so on Friday at the Division of Health, Wellness and Family Development's virtual news briefing.

'We are in the process of pulling together a mobile team that will go out to homes for the aged as well as the shut-ins and begin the delivery of the vaccines to those persons,' Mitchell said.

'We will come to you in terms of the paperwork. We will come to you in terms of getting the number of persons.'

In the case of the residential care facilities, staff and residents will also be vaccinated.

'So, you can look forward to us as early as next week beginning to move out to come to these areas to ensure the delivery of the vaccines to the residents.'

On the vaccination process, thus far, Mitchell said as of May 6, a total of 5,153 people are registered.

'Appointments would have been given out to those persons who qualified. So, the demand is there.'

Mitchell said 600 doses of the Oxford Astra-Zeneca vaccine remain from the last stock and will be administered before the next batch arrives.

Among the population, Mitchell said people in the 40 to 44, 35 to 39 and 55 to 59 age groups are coming forward in their numbers to access the vaccine.

'So, we will continue to target those people who have non-communicable diseases within the other age groups - 45 to 49 as well as the 50 to 55 - to see if we could get their numbers up.'

In terms of vaccinations, Mitchell said Scarborough Health Centre is out front followed by Canaan and Roxborough Health Centres.

She observed younger people have been accessing the vaccines at the Roxborough facility.

'Our communication campaign will work towards trying to get the older folks to receive the vaccine within that particular side of the island.'

Mitchell could not say how many vaccines Tobago would receive from the second Covax tranche of 33,600, which is expected to arrive in the country on Monday.