Health officials not likely to reach end-of-year vaccination goal

Public health officials are reporting an approximate 50 per cent dip in the average daily vaccination rate over the last two weeks, which is being blamed partly on a sickout among nurses and public holidays.

Co-Coordinator of the National Vaccination Campaign, Dr Elizabeth Ferdinand has, however, rejected the notion that this country’s vaccine rates have somehow reached its plateau, noting that more than 10,000 eligible children still have not received the jab.

Since November 24, the total number of first doses taken rose by just 965, from 153,261 to 154,226. Meanwhile, the number of fully vaccinated people moved from 135,721 to 138,857, an increase of 3,136.

However, the latest COVID-19 dashboard places the percentage of the fully vaccinated population at 51.2 per cent, nearly 15 percentage points shy of Chief Medical Officer (CMO) the Most Honourable Dr Kenneth George’s 65 per cent target.

“Roughly speaking, the numbers are down about a half. So we are doing half of what we were doing in the previous week and there are some explanations for that,” Dr Ferdinand told Barbados TODAY.

“As you know, we have had problems with the nurses ‘sicking’ out, so that can contribute. Also, it was Independence and we’re now getting ready for Christmas, so people are not rushing to get vaccines.

“We closed for three days over the Independence weekend…. The sites were working for [fewer] days, and now this week, the nurses have sicked out, but we have tried to keep some of the sites so that the public could have access to vaccines,” the public health specialist added.

Over the past week, nurses represented by the Unity Workers’ Union have withdrawn their labour over challenges with the implementation of the Government’s Safe Zone Policy across the public health sector.

“This week, some sites have not worked at all because there was no staff to work them and that’s the situation. So we are trying,” Dr Ferdinand said.

“So, we have another three weeks and we’ll fall a little shy of what the CMO has asked us to do, but we are inching up. It’s a slow process, not as fast as I would like, but at least we’re going up,” she added.

When asked the likelihood that the falloff is because vaccine numbers peaked and then fell, the vaccination coordinator maintained that authorities would continue to work assiduously to convince more people to come forward.

“We have only done 50 per cent of the children between 12 and 18, so right there you have a cadre of about 10,000 people who haven’t come forward. Children who are included in the eligible population, they haven’t come forward for one reason or another. They have to come with their parents, so if the parent has been slow to bring them up, they can’t come without their parents,” said Ferdinand.

“I think the employers have also tried to encourage as many of the staff to come and get vaccinated and we have seen first doses coming up. I think with the increase in deaths as well, some of the older people have come up for their first doses.

“It is hard to say, but I think people are still responding, though slowly. They are getting more information or maybe they are looking at it more critically, they’re seeing that all of us who have been vaccinated seem to be fine and most of the people dying have not been vaccinated. So, I think in all of this, people are understanding a lot more and I think the increase will still be very gradual unless we do some drastic interventions,” she added

kareemsmith@barbadostoday.bb