(Trinidad Express) - Trinidad and Tobago’s COVID-19 vaccination drive will soon slow as the country’s first dose supplies are set to run out by the end of the month.

This according to Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley who speaking at a COVID-19 news conference yesterday, noted that no incoming shipments of vaccines were expected before the end of June. As a result, he said, the administration of first doses would slow until another incoming shipment.

In the interim, he said, the administration of second doses would continue and is likely to last until mid-July.

“If we don’t receive any shipments by the end of the month, we will not have vaccines to give anybody a first dose. Once that is clear, I don’t expect people to come and say why you stop vaccinating, carry on the vaccination programme, we need to vaccinate the population. That is not necessary. We can only vaccinate with vaccines.” “So, at the end of this month, I expect that every vaccine that we have which is available for a first dose would have been used. The vaccination program continues because we have in hand vaccines to give people their second dose. Those people who would have already got their first dose will get their second dose. That will take us into mid-July. by that time 377,000 vaccines that we had would have been completely used up both in the first and second doses,” he said.

Rowley added that there are four possible sources of incoming vaccines over the next few months. The country’s third COVAX shipment of approximately 33,600, he said, is likely to arrive towards the end of July.

“There are two shipments likely to be on the way. Our third COVAX shipment, I was advised this morning, has been delayed again to sometime in July. It looks as though sometime towards the end of July if there are no further delays from the COVAX end. That has nothing to do with the Government of the Minister of Health, we are the recipients of that. If we have used up all that we have by the second week of July it means there will be a period in between when there is no vaccination going on. That is 33,000 doses if it doesn’t get reduced in the process,” he said.

In addition to this, he said, the Government intends to continue purchases of the Sinopharm vaccine from China. He estimated one quarter million vaccines arriving in the month of July. The exact incoming number from China, he said, is yet to be clarified.

“We are also continuing our purchase from China and we expect that there will be another in July in the order similar to the one we just got. We will wait until we get the shipment document and confirmation to tell you that is the other source of vaccines. If things go according to plan, we should have one quarter million doses during the month of July,” he said.

The country can also expect an incoming shipment from the African Medical Supply Platform in August, he said. However, the promise of the United States to share its vaccine supplies, he said, remains only a promise.

“We are still on track with our African Medical Supply platform expectation but remember that is in August. The fourth promise is the promise of the United States to share their vaccines, we have not seen anything beyond that so far, we have not seen anything come through and we don’t know if we will be qualified,” he said.