Barbados readies for mass vaccination

The largest vaccination campaign in the history of Barbados is currently being planned by many of the island’s top health professionals.

Sister Rosanette Cooke, Public Health Nurse and Senior Health Sister at the Sir Winston Scott Polyclinic, says the team of public health nurses being tasked with the massive job at hand, is more than ready for the challenge.

Speaking during Sunday’s COVID-19 update, Sister Cooke said the nurses have already started planning the logistical side of the campaign, and the medical professionals are being prepared for any eventuality during the administration of doses to patients.

“We even started preparing [from] Friday, in terms of those persons who are even concerned about [having] an allergic reaction or such like, we have actually prepared our emergency trays and everything. So, we have our supplies, we have our oxygen and even to go out into the field when we are doing the [vaccinations] we have all the supplies ready, just waiting for the start date,” she said.

Cooke, who has been in charge of vaccination programmes out of the Sir Winston Scott Polyclinic since 2011, says that the Ministry of Health already has purpose-built facilities used to store vaccines all year around, and are built with safety mechanisms and redundancies to ensure that vaccines stored on site are never compromised.

“The Ministry of Health has a very adequate storage facility for the vaccine, and generally the facility is monitored every day in regards to the temperatures, so that we make sure the temperatures are up to date. Vaccines are stored at temperatures on average from plus 2 to plus 8 degrees Celsius, and that is how we monitor our vaccines to make sure they remain viable, we make sure they remain in good condition so that they can be disbursed to the public,” Cooke said.

Cooke also said that the cold chain, the temperature-control, logistics management process of the vaccine from the manufacturer to the patient’s arm, is monitored closely to guarantee that vaccine will always be transported safely and ready for use.

Additionally, Sister Cooke said the Ministry of Health’s storage facility has its own backup power reserve, in the event of any power outages.

“The Ministry of Health also has backup generators, which are serviced frequently. Also, in the event that there is a power outage, there is an alarm sent that we will get a notification early before anything can go wrong,” she added.

Initially, polyclinics as well as schools and social centres are being eyed as possible locations for vaccine inoculation, with persons being encouraged to get vaccinated when they can, even if they are not used to using the services of the island’s polyclinics.

“We use an electronic system referred to as My Data. My Data system was set up for the Electoral and Boundaries Commission. So one of the things that happens in that system, [is] that we have every person registered at the Electoral and Boundaries Commission. So as long as you can give your [National] ID number, we can actually pull you up in the system, even though you may not have been a patient at the polyclinic, I can still actually find your name.

“It does not matter where you go, you can still have access to your vaccine because we can still see your record.” (SB)