Prime Minister Dr. Keith Rowley laments that there is a serious inequity in global distribution of Covid-19 vaccines, with smaller countries getting the shorter end of the stick.

Dr. Rowley says Trinidad and Tobago has encountered suppliers who will not engage their quest for vaccines, choosing to reserve doses for countries who can purchase in the millions.

“Under the COVAX, the arrangement was that all countries who had agreed to sign on, agreed to an arrangement where we would all pay upfront toward vaccine research so that the universities and the companies who are able to research and develop vaccines in as quick a time as possible; when that development came to pass and approval was given by the World Health Organisation (WHO), that all of us, by a formula that we had worked out, be able to access initially a certain quantum of vaccines according to our population size,” he said during Monday’s Covid-10 media briefing.

Trinidad and Tobago joined the COVAX facility at a total cost of $9.7 million last October, making an initial payment of $1.477 million in December. 

Apart from the COVAX facility, T&T is depending on bilateral talks with vaccine suppliers and help from the African Medicine Council to ensure it receives sufficient vaccine supply.