Trinidad and Tobago officially began its rollout of the Covid-19 vaccine on Tuesday afternoon, with up to 100 healthcare workers expected to receive their first dose before the end of the day.

An excited Health Minister, Terrence Deyalsingh affirmed ahead of the first administration, that the program represented a significant step in the return to normalcy.

“Today, we draw a line in the sand and we tell the virus, ‘we are in control’ and if we get enough of the population to take the vaccine, the day will come, I promise you when you can hug your grandfather, go to a party and life can return to what we knew it in January 2020,” he said.

Nurse Keisha Prevatt-Gomez, who works with the Infectious Disease Control department, was the first to receive the vaccine at the Couva Hospital, with Medical Chief of Staff at the Couva Facility, Dr. Don Martin, being the second.

The doses are out of  2,000 vaccines which recently arrived in T&T as a gift from Barbados.

 Minister Deyalsingh confirmed that neither he nor any other government minister will be in line for the first batch.

“Because we are only starting with 2,000, it would be, in my view, irresponsible of me to take up one of those few precious doses which could go to a frontline healthcare worker. I don’t want it to be said that a frontline healthcare worker contracted the virus and died and that one dose could have saved their life,” he said.

Trinidad and Tobago is expected to receive its share of 100,000 vaccines from the COVAX facility in early March.

Government is also in bilateral talks with India and China, in a bid to secure more vaccines.