Sinopharm vaccines to arrive on Tuesday
A vial of the Sinopharm covid19 vaccine. - Nabil al-Jurani
Foreign and Caricom Affairs Minister Amery Browne has confirmed that the shipment of 100,000 Sinopharm vaccines from China will arrive on Tuesday.
In a Whatsapp response to a Newsday question about the vaccines, Browne said, Arrival is scheduled for Tuesday night.
The government of China agreed to donate the vaccines following a conversation between Prime Minister Dr Rowley and China s President Xi Jinping on March 16. The agreement was hinged on the World Health Organization (WHO) approving this vaccine. The approval was given on May 7.
WHO director general Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the vaccine was the sixth to receive WHO validation for safety, efficacy and quality.
Winning people over with simple language
Dr Maryam Abdool-Richards, principal medical officer in charge of institutions at the Health Ministry -
THE EDITOR: I publicly thank Dr Maryam Abdool-Richards, principal medical officer at the Ministry of Health (Institutions), for her especially enlightening presentation at the Prime Minister’s news conference on May 1.
With a few delicate, laser-like strokes of communication, Abdool-Richards was able to employ simple language and illustrations to convince hard-to-understand people like myself that the covid19 pandemic is a hungry wolf just ten days away from our nation’s door,
In the same way that her charming manner successfully disguised her seriousness of intent to get her points directly across, Abdool-Richards exhibited mastery of the communications technology in the vein of leaders like Eric Williams, Abe Lincoln and Basdeo Panday.
Tobago’s claim on the Treasury
Reginald Dumas - Arthur Dash
THE EDITOR: Self-government for Tobago as proposed in the bill before Parliament is now a subject for national discussion. While focus is on the constitutional, legal and administrative issues involved in the proposed governance arrangement, not much attention is being paid by the general tax-paying public on the funding requirements for this embrace of greater autonomy by the sister island.
Tobago’s fixed claim on the national finances was first established in the Tobago House of Assembly Act of 1996 when a minimum allocation of 4.03 per cent of the national budget was to be granted to the THA to be spent at the pleasure of that body without effective oversight or accountability either in Tobago or by the Parliament of TT.
Education key in battle against virus
Prime Minister Dr Rowley - Angelo Marcelle
THE EDITOR: Monday s communication by Prime Minister Dr Rowley has highlighted the need for an increased and effective education campaign on the covid19 pandemic.
The nature of Monday s questions makes it evident that even among our more informed journalists there is a deficiency in the rudimentary grasp of the problem.
Essentially, in any infected individual there exists a plethora of constantly varying viral forms. There is however a dominant form but with concurrent variations. Dependent on existing environmental conditions, variants will emerge. The biological principle is survival of the fittest.
MP Hosein: Poor border control led to Brazil variant coming in
4 Hrs Ago
WE REACH: This November 2020 file photo shows people, believed to be Venezuelan nationals, arriving at the Los Iros beach in a pirogue. -
Barataria/San Juan MP Saddam Hosein said government’s inability to manage the Venezuelan immigration crisis has led to the increasing number of the covid19 Brazilian variant coming into the country.
Hosein was speaking at a UNC press conference on Sunday at the Office of the Leader of the Opposition in Port of Spain.
“The variant stems from South America. How did it get here,” Hosein asked. “It must have entered through an illegal point of entry. That is how the virus reached our shores.”