As the local vaccination program is underway with over 50 frontline workers already vaccinated the government is outlining its plan to roll out the vaccine in the public domain.
Mechanisms are being put in place to distribute the vaccines to clinics and to private doctors to facilitate the quick distribution of the vaccine across the country.
One condition of the free supply to private medical practitioners is that no-one is to pay for the service or the product. The vaccines’ dissemination among the population must be cost-free, the Cabinet decided.
A website will also be implemented in the coming days that will facilitate registration for the vaccine. Persons will be asked to fill put a form online and are encouraged to assist those persons who may not be tech savvy.
Information Minister Melford Nicholas also added that this website will be a great tool in helping health officials to manage vaccine distribution.
“We are working with a company out of the UK who have been so kind as to make the platform available for the management of this vaccine roll out. It is a comprehensive platform that will help the medical professionals to be able to at a glance be able to see the density of the inoculation in any specific community. So, persons when they are registering to take the vaccine will be required to give their address and some form of ID. Of cours, this will help the public health officials to be able to determine when they get the second dose,which communities are not as well served and whether or not they can do something in response to those arrangements,” Nicholas stated.
The educational program will also in the coming weeks increase their efforts as the Sub-Committee the National Coordinating Committee for the COVID-19 Vaccine, have stated their intent to recruit many influencial voices to assist in this porcess.
These voices will be used in education and public announcements that will attempt to sway the majority away from the anti-vaccers’ negative messages.
The Chief Medical Officer Dr Rhonda Sealy-Thomas pointed out that until 80% of the population has achieved vaccination, “herd immunity” will not be attained.
That status (herd immunity) is necessary to cause infections from Covid to be no more deadly than the flu, it was remarked; hospitalizations, all manner of maladies, sickness and death will then be brought under control.
