The May­or of Ch­agua­nas is urg­ing peo­ple to get vac­ci­nat­ed against COVID-19, in or­der to help pro­tect their fam­i­lies against the dead­ly virus this Christ­mas sea­son.

In an of­fi­cial state­ment, May­or Faaiq Mo­hammed is en­cour­ag­ing Ch­agua­nas burgess­es to en­sure they are vac­ci­nat­ed in or­der to pro­tect them­selves and their fam­i­lies, as the num­ber of deaths from and in­fec­tions of COVID-19 con­tin­ue to rise.

“Last week­end, we lost 48 cit­i­zens in 48 hours to COVID-19.  Each death is un­for­tu­nate, and it is even greater suf­fer­ing and mis­ery when we learned that among those who died was a child,” May­or Mo­hammed not­ed.  “My heart goes out to the fam­i­lies of all those who lost their loved ones to the virus.”

“Dur­ing this up­com­ing fes­tive sea­son, per­sons should con­sid­er get­ting vac­ci­nat­ed to curb the spread of the virus so we can all en­joy the hol­i­days and every day af­ter that.  I am urg­ing you my burgess­es and the peo­ple of Trinidad and To­ba­go to en­cour­age your fam­i­ly, your neigh­bours and your friends to get vac­ci­nat­ed in or­der to re­ceive the best pos­si­ble pro­tec­tion,” the may­or says in the re­lease.

May­or Mo­hammed points out that many ac­tiv­i­ties were can­celled due to the spread of the COVID-19 virus since 2020, and the ar­rival and avail­abil­i­ty of COVID-19 vac­cines “was a re­lief for many”.  He said per­sons now have op­tions to ac­cess var­i­ous types of vac­cines through­out Trinidad and To­ba­go.

“Fam­i­ly gath­er­ings, warm hugs from loved ones, meals with friends and as­so­ciates have all been sac­ri­ficed in or­der to keep our fam­i­ly and com­mu­ni­ty safe from the COVID-19 virus.  Vac­cines en­able us to spend more time do­ing what we en­joy with the peo­ple we care about. We know how it feels to lose a hol­i­day, spend­ing time with fam­i­ly or loved ones and mak­ing cher­ished mem­o­ries,” the may­or said.

“We all want to over­come this pan­dem­ic and get­ting vac­ci­nat­ed is our on­ly tick­et out of this pan­dem­ic,” he added.

May­or Mo­hammed is ad­vis­ing those with con­cerns or doubts about COVID-19 vac­ci­na­tion to seek ad­vice from med­ical prac­ti­tion­ers and avoid tak­ing ad­vice from “so­cial me­dia doc­tors”.

“Vac­cines save mil­lions of lives each year and this is an im­por­tant as­pect of man­ag­ing the virus with­in our pop­u­la­tion.  Vac­cines are one of the most im­por­tant sci­en­tif­ic in­ven­tions of all time. Vac­cines are bring­ing us clos­er to a place that helps in the re­duc­tion of ill­ness­es,” he said.

He added: “Vac­cines have aid­ed in the de­cline of small­pox and po­lio through­out the last cen­tu­ry. To­day, bil­lions of peo­ple glob­al­ly, are al­so pro­tect­ed against dis­eases such as measles and chick­en pox be­cause of be­ing im­mu­nized. Vac­cines have dras­ti­cal­ly re­duced the preva­lence of these dis­eases al­low­ing per­sons to live longer and health­i­er lives.”

May­or Mo­hammed al­so is re­mind­ing the pub­lic to con­tin­ue to prac­tice the 3Ws—wear­ing your mask, watch­ing your dis­tance and wash­ing your hands—even if they have been vac­ci­nat­ed against COVID-19, to be ex­tra safe.