COVID-19 infections have climbed by another two cases, both confirmed by the Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA), according to a release circulated Sunday night, December 6.
The current total is 146, with 85 recorded as imported cases; and with the numbers rising, Antigua & Barbuda is preparing to receive a batch of 20,000 pre-ordered vaccines, the Cabinet says.
To that end, last week’s Notes claim that several industrial freezers have been acquired, reportedly for installation at a site near Barnacle Point, and are being readied to store the vaccines.
However, some doctors note that PAHO has not yet recommended any particular vaccine to the regional authorities. Therefore, they are asking who, or what, has guided the Cabinet’s decision to acquire these freezers, and from whom the Administration has accepted or purchased them.
To date, several pharmaceutical companies have produced viable COVID-19 vaccines, with the Pfizer version requiring refrigeration of minus-70 degrees. Others, like the drug produced by Moderna, have less stringent requirements for storage.
The medical fraternity is cynical about Government’s so-called preparations for the vaccines. This is because of the “murky circumstances” under which the NTTC Building on Nugent Avenue was converted into a satellite hospital, at a time when Mount St. John Medical Centre was understaffed and under-equipped, he says.
To date, that facility remains incomplete and unoccupied, with a price tag reportedly in the millions for the retrofitting.
Meanwhile, the Cabinet also notes that frontline workers, hospital staff, the elderly and vulnerable as well as Parliamentarians will be the first persons inoculated when the vaccines arrive here.
But a frontline worker tells our Newsroom he has no faith in that promise. He points out that they were supposed to be among the first residents selected for testing when the kits became available here in the summer. And yet, he says, they are “still waiting for it to happen.”
In the meantime, persons needing to be tested – for travel and as a pre-requisite for surgery – must pay for the service at Mount St. John Medical Centre.
Testing fees are $300 and, for a rush job, $400, and up to mid-November, the hospital had already collected over one million dollars ($1m) for this service.
