Health ministry still aiming for 65% March vax target
Published:Friday | December 10, 2021 | 12:12 AMJudana Murphy/Gleaner Writer
Despite the low take-up of COVID-19 vaccines across the island, the health ministry has indicated that it will not be ceding the battle to anti-vaxxers as it pushes towards its target of inoculating 65 per cent of the population by next March.
More than 520,000 Jamaicans have been fully vaccinated since Jamaica began administering shots in March this year.
Health Minister Dr Christopher Tufton reasoned that the vaccination programme has evolved from having shortages to an abundance of supplies, and issues surrounding site access have been resolved with more than enough outlets and home delivery of vaccines also under way.
“We are going to be deploying more mobile units. There are six additional units that are coming on stream shortly. We have public-health nurses literally doing house-to-house [calls]. We have call-in sessions, where persons who are immobile can call their parish public health office and schedule visits for vaccination,” he explained in a Gleaner Editors’ Forum on Wednesday.
Tufton added that when there are compelling reasons like eligibility to access the overseas work programme hanging in the balance, people rush to get vaccinated.
“Otherwise, it’s really about convincing persons, and I believe the evolving situation of vaccination for access will also add to the incentivisation, but we do have a lot of work to do because the anti-vax movement is real, and some of those fears are real also, and we have to continue to confront them,” the health minister said.
POWERFUL MOVEMENT
Tufton said that in some jurisdictions, the anti-vax movement and the noise in the larger media space have created some fears, but for the most part, people recognise the importance of vaccination.
“The anti-vax movement has become a lot more powerful and has been underestimated, not just by our local authorities, but by our multilateral partners and our international agencies. Over time, immunization as a concept has been universal and has been a critical part of our human development here in Jamaica and the world, but over time also, the anti-vax movement has been well-resourced as they use alternative media,” Tufton said.
Chief Medical Officer (CMO) Dr Jacquiline Bisasor-McKenzie said that the Government has not abandoned its 65 per cent target for March 2022.
“Every day, we are increasing the number of sites that we have and encouraging persons to get vaccinated. Last week, we had 274 sites available across the country. We are not giving up. Our message is still there for people to get vaccinated, and especially now, because we have a new variant,” Bisasor-McKenzie said, referring to Omicron, the full capabilities of which remain unknown, having emerged within the last three weeks.
However, she acknowledged that it may be a tall task, describing the current vaccination numbers as “disappointing”.
“We see the fall-off and so, therefore, it may be that we might not reach that target by March based on the present numbers that we are seeing. We continue to try and get the message out, but we may have to look at a different date if we are going to put a date to achieving that,” the CMO explained.