Face to face classes for fully vaccinated children in T&T

From October 1st, fully vaccinated students in forms four, five and six will have the option to attend face-to-face classes at schools, public and private in T&T.

“If there is so significant change from that (the epidemiology) we will offer face to face classes to our children in Form 4, Form 5 and Form 6 in all our secondary schools. But that option is going to be offered to vaccinated children only,” announced Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister Keith Rowley during a media conference.

The academic year will begin on Monday 6th September 2021, with all students returning to classes virtually. The Prime Minister expressed disappointment in the country’s vaccination numbers.

He stated that at this time there are still 800,000 people eligible to be vaccinated in Trinidad and Tobago.

Rowley reiterated his call for children to be fully vaccinated ahead and pointed out that children returning to the physical classroom needed to receive their second dose by September 14 to ensure full immunity. As of yesterday, only 25 per cent of children eligible for the vaccine had received a dose. 

According to Acting Principal Medical Officer, Dr Maryam Richards, the number of children currently hospitalised with COVID-19 has now increased to 10. Dr Richards said eight children are receiving ward level care, one child is in the high-dependency unit and one child is in the intensive care unit.

Richards confirmed that samples from these young patients were sent to the University of the West Indies for genetic sequencing to determine the presence of the Delta variant. 

“All children that are confirmed as positive and are in the hospitals do undergo genomic sequencing and is sent to the UWI lab, which of course, is working in conjunction with the Ministry of Health and the Trinidad Public Health laboratory. That’s a standard procedure.”

Meanwhile, Minister of Health the Hon. Terrence Deyalsingh announced that the National Vaccination Programme will be expanded to target all sectors in the country:

• Johnson & Johnson vaccines will now be available across the 109 Health Centres.
• Pop-Up Vaccination sites to be rolled out at construction sites, malls, groceries and markets.
• Pfizer COVID-19 vaccines will now be offered to Health Care Workers and Teachers.
• A vaccination programme to begin across some schools to allow students the opportunity to be vaccinated.

There were seven additional COVID related deaths yesterday in T&T bringing the total number of deaths to 1274. The Ministry of Health recorded 297 new cases in the last 24 hours making the total number of active cases at 4701.