Min­is­ter of Health Ter­rence Deyals­ingh has been au­tho­rised by the Prime Min­is­ter to an­nounce the re­open­ing of the NL­CB and Lot­to booths from Mon­day. He al­so an­nounced to­day that all re­tail shops would be re­opened on Mon­day, Au­gust 16.

Deyals­ingh made the an­nounce­ment to­day at the Min­istry of Health's COVID-19 up­date and called for su­per­vi­sors and man­agers to en­sure that their staff is vac­ci­nat­ed so that the coun­try could con­tin­ue to re­open safe­ly.

The Min­is­ter al­so an­nounced the roll­out of the As­tra Zeneca vac­cines that was do­nat­ed by Cana­da last week.

The Min­is­ter said that one batch of the As­traZeneca vac­cines are set to ex­pire at the end of Au­gust and the sec­ond batch is set to ex­pire a the end of Oc­to­ber so they will be used for first and sec­ond dos­es.

Deyals­ingh al­so said that with­in the re­tail sec­tor, peo­ple on the shop floor who have to in­ter­act with cus­tomers must be vac­ci­nat­ed and urged su­per­vi­sors and man­agers to strength­en the pro­to­cols on the shop floor be­cause there is no way to dis­cern whether cus­tomers are vac­ci­nat­ed or not.

He said that un­vac­ci­nat­ed cus­tomers deal­ing with un­vac­ci­nat­ed work­ers was a "recipe for dis­as­ter".

The Min­is­ter said that there is no con­sid­er­a­tion for in-house din­ing just yet as it means the re­moval of the mask with­in an en­closed space.

Start­ing from Mon­day, Au­gust 9, the 84,000 dos­es of As­traZeneca vac­cines will be ad­min­is­tered to the pub­lic.

The As­traZeneca dos­es have been al­lo­cat­ed as fol­lows:

- 4,000 To­ba­go

- 3,000 Pad­dock

- 3,000 NA­PA

- 5,000 UTT, Ch­agua­nas

- 4,000 Na­tion­al Rac­quet Cen­tre, Tacarigua

- 2,000 San­gre Grande Civic Cen­tre

- 5,000 Di­wali Na­gar

- 5,000 Ato Boldon

- 10,000 SAPA

- 2,000 Ma­yaro Health Cen­tre