Close to 600 peo­ple were vac­ci­nat­ed at the Min­istry of Health's three Mass Vac­ci­na­tion Sites in south Trinidad on Sat­ur­day.

Ac­cord­ing to num­bers pro­vid­ed by the South West Re­gion­al Health Au­thor­i­ty, the high­est turnout was at the Man­nie Ramjohn Sta­di­um dri­ve-through where 292 peo­ple took the jab. At the South­ern Acad­e­my for Per­form­ing Arts and the Pe­nal Pow­er­Gen 129 and 176 vac­cines were ad­min­is­tered re­spec­tive­ly.

Speak­ing with Guardian Me­dia at the Man­nie Ramjohn sta­di­um 21-year-old Stef­fon Ram­roop ad­mit­ted that he would not have tak­en the vac­cine if he did not have plans to trav­el. Ram­roop said he was hold­ing out on tak­ing the vac­cine to see if it had side ef­fects. "I re­al­ly look­ing to fly out of the coun­try so they say you have to get the vac­cine be­fore you leave so I need up tak­ing it."

Dave Paras, a re­tiree of Mara­bel­la, al­so had doubts about tak­ing the vac­cine. How­ev­er, af­ter los­ing two of his close friends to COVID-19 he de­cid­ed to take the vac­cine to pro­tect him­self and his fam­i­ly.

"Doubts were al­ways from the start­ing be­cause when you hear­ing a lot of neg­a­tive stuff it all boils down to you want to do it or you don't want to do it. Know­ing that I have fam­i­ly and I have friends who fall by I thought this was my best way to go. It has my fam­i­ly a lil more com­fort­able know­ing that I take it and you know I leave every­thing right now in God's hands."

Sat­ur­day was the first day for the vac­ci­na­tion dri­ve at Man­nie Ramjohn Sta­di­um and it con­tin­ues Sun­day and Mon­day, as well as at SAPA. Ac­cord­ing to the min­istry's COVID-19 up­date on Sat­ur­day 388,805 peo­ple have re­ceived their first dose while 194, 710 got their sec­ond dose.

Dave Paras after receiving the COVID-19 jab at the drive-through vaccination site at the Mannie Ramjohn Stadium, Marabella.

RISHI RAGOONATH

10,000 take the jab at Mass Vac­ci­na­tion Site run by Pro­man

Mean­while, more than 10,000 peo­ple have been vac­ci­nat­ed at the Mass Vac­ci­na­tion site run by Pro­man at the Ato Boldon Sta­di­um.

Fazard Mo­hammed, head of cor­po­rate com­mu­ni­ca­tions at Pro­man, said there has been a slow­ing down of peo­ple com­ing to use the dri­ve-through fa­cil­i­ties. He said the ad­min­is­tra­tion of the first dose con­tin­ues un­til Au­gust 8 and those who have ap­point­ments for the sec­ond dose would be­gin on Au­gust 9 and run to Au­gust 29.

In a re­lease the methanol and fer­tilis­er com­pa­ny said "As a re­spon­si­ble cor­po­rate part­ner, we are pleased to join the min­istry and oth­er key stake­hold­ers in en­sur­ing that mem­bers of the pub­lic and in­di­vid­u­als across our com­mu­ni­ties have ac­cess to the COVID-19 vac­cine, which will play a vi­tal role in help­ing our coun­try re­turn to a more nor­mal way of life."