BASSETERRE, St. Kitts - THE Government is expected to begin rolling out its vaccination drive in the Federation on Monday (Feb. 22), and it will be done through the 17 Health Centers in the Federation.
That was announced this morning (Feb. 18) by Prime Minister Dr. Timothy Harris during today’s sitting of the National Assembly.
Health officials in the Federation are currently in receipt of 2,000 doses of the AstraZeneca Vaccine that were part of a large shipment donated by the Government of India to the Government of Dominica, who in turn passed on that amount to the St. Kitts and Nevis.
According to Dr. Harris, the aim of his Government is not just to cover 20 percent of the population, but rather more than 70 percent of the population covered; and in the process achieve the Herd Immunity threshold and wide scale protection.
“We are in the process of expanding the storage capacities for vaccines at our two main hospitals. The vaccines will be transferred from these central storage points to the 17 Health Centers located on Nevis and on St. Kitts, which are the designated vaccination sites on both islands,” Dr. Harris told the National Assembly.
Meanwhile, the Prime Minister confirmed that he would be among the first set of people to receive the vaccine on Monday.
The vaccine roll will be done in three phases with those frontline workers who are at the forefront of the fight, such as those at the air and sea ports being the ones who will get the first dose.
“The plan outlines each of the target priority groups to be vaccinated in each phase. The Ministry of Health is partnering with our IT Department to develop a registry, which is being populated with names of persons to be vaccinated on a database to facilitate COVID-19 vaccine safety surveillance,” explained Dr. Harris.
Dr. Harris, who is CARICOM’s Lead on Health, reminded of efforts being undertaken by the region in the push to source vaccines. He pointed to accessing 1.5 million doses from the African Medical Supply Platform (AMSP) as one initiative undertaken by the region to ensure it meets it vaccine targets.
He revealed that under that arrangement, the region would receive Pfizer, AstraZeneca and Johnson and Johnson Vaccines.
