The Opposition United National Congress is pleading with government to move quickly in making a request for vaccines, following news that the United States will export some 60 million Astra Zeneca doses to countries where it is accepted.

In a statement on Monday, Member of Parliament for Caroni East Rishad Seecheran said: “The Rowley Administration should not hesitate, as it did when India opened its vaccine supplies to the world in January 2021. We were the last of the CARICOM nations to write to the Prime Minister of India, asking for assistance with our Covid-19 Recovery.”

“Vaccines are in great need here in Trinidad and Tobago, given the arrival of the Brazilian Variant (P1) in our population and the Ministry of Health’s inability to trace the origin of its entry. The P1 Variant is highly transmissible and poses a clear and present danger to our citizens and the economic recovery of our twin island State,” he said.

The US did not say which countries in particular would receive the donation- and under what criteria.

US President Joe Biden did, however, pledge to offer assistance to India on Monday, as the country grapples with a mounting number of cases which had crippled its hospital system.