Six days after the Oxford/AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine arrived here, close to 3,000 people have received their first dose, Prime Minister Mia Mottley disclosed on Monday.
In an address to the nation on the state of COVID-19 on the island, she said 2,863 people had received the jab, though she expects the number of vaccinations per week to increase soon.
Mottley revealed that of the 100,000 doses that arrived here on Tuesday as a gift from the Indian government, 92,000 were left for national use after some 8,000 doses were donated to CARICOM neighbours in the Southern and Eastern Caribbean.
She also indicated that a portion of the vaccines here will be stored so that the second dose can be administered within the next five to ten weeks, while Government hunts for additional vaccines and awaits an additional shipment under the global COVAX initiative.
She said: “Most of them will get their second dose I am being told in ten weeks’ time, but by the same token, this is a commendable start for a country that really did not have a lot of stuff in place for a vaccination programme. This week we expect to see it considerably ramped up, especially with the inclusion of the vulnerable from today.
“As you would have known, most of the health officials and the security people were at the front of the vaccination program thus far, but we need now to continue the rest of those frontline workers while increasing those persons who have registered. Up to this morning, I was told, that we had just over 2,000 persons over 70 registered, and just under 1000 persons between 18 and 69 who have already registered.”
The R number, which is the number of people that one infected person will pass on a virus to on average, must be lowered on the island, the Prime Minister declared as she pleaded with Barbadians to take the health protocols and vaccination process seriously if the country is ever to return quickly to any semblance of normal economic activity.
The Prime Minister said: “The other aspect of bringing down the R number is how you reduce the susceptible population. If the person who has COVID, can share it with persons around them that are susceptible, then I either have to reduce the people who have COVID as well as reduce the people who are susceptible.
“The people who have COVID, we are trying to reduce, the people who are susceptible, how do we do that, by increasing the level of vaccinations… If we can increase the number of vaccinations, then we can begin to wrestle this thing to the ground,”
But despite Government’s education drive on the vaccine and the state of the disease, some Barbadians continue to spread falsehoods, conspiracy theories and wrong advice on social media, prompting the Prime Minister to deliver a stinging rebuke. In commenting about the viral video circulating last week, which implied that Governor General Dame Sandra Mason did not take the vaccine, Mottley said the dangerous practice of spreading falsehoods on social media needs to end immediately.
“There are people who are using the social media to create mischief,” Mottley said. “What happened with that video with the Governor General of this nation, is absolutely reprehensible. The persons who did it should have the conscience to come forward and stand up and be counted for their unfortunate behaviour, trying to make mischief.
“Who are they making mischief for? They are not making mischief for me, because I know enough sense to read and know to dismiss them. They are not making mischief for [Health Minister] Jeffrey Bostic or [Senior Medical Officer] Anton Best, because [they] have enough sense to dismiss them. They are making mischief for people who just don’t know better, and whose condition, in the absence of a vaccination could cause them to be one of the people who die in this country.
“That is why I come here angry with those persons who believe they can continue to play politics and to play partisan behaviour, and to play all kinds of nonsense with respect to the lives of our people.”
Mottley also adamantly rejected any notion that the current vaccine was unsafe, as Britain itself has vaccinated over 15 million people so far with the Oxford/AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine.
“We got to stop this nonsense,” she said. “We have people in Barbados who need the guidance of their family… their MPs… the media, everybody, in order to guide them, and of course, their doctors because their individual circumstances have to be assessed as well.” (SB)
