Vaccination campaign suspended for next shipment

Government has suspended its initial COVID-19 vaccinations with about one in five Barbadians receiving the first of two doses, the campaign’s co-coordinator has said.  The Ministry of Health has delivered 63,689 shots of the Oxford AstraZeneca jab from the 90,000-odd doses it received as a gift from India.

Now, the Ministry of Health awaits the arrival of the vaccine it bought through the global vaccine purchasing programme, COVAX, in order to put more shots in arms for the first time and begin to administer the second dose, due after eight to ten weeks.

The COVAX jabs have begun arriving in the English-speaking Caribbean, several weeks later than the original arrival date of mid-February for the first batch. The Government had bought enough vaccines to innoculate one in five Barbadians through COVAX.

Guyana received a batch of 24,000 AstraZeneca vaccines on Monday while shipments of 33,600 doses each are due in Bahamas, Belize and Trinidad and Tobago between Tuesday and Wednesday, according to the Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO).

Major David Clarke, the vaccination programme’s co-coordinator told Barbados TODAY that as a result of the lessons learned during this first phase, officials will be better able to administer the second dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine, scheduled to begin on April 17.

The vaccination programme’s high inoculation rate catapulted Barbados ahead of some of the world’s richest nations in high inoculation rates. At roughly 22 doses per 100 people, the island’s vaccination rate is the tenth highest in the Americas, bested only by Antigua and Barbuda among CARICOM member states at 26 per 100 people, according to PAHO figures. The United States, at 40 per 100 people, is the fourth highest.

But the campaign was marred by long lines outside polyclinics and a chaotic appointment system driven initially by social media. While many of the target group of over 70s pensioners and younger adults with pre-existing illnesses complained of not receiving appointments despite registration, thousands endured hours in the sun awaiting their turn to receive the jab.

Now Major Clarke is promising improvement in managing the process using upgraded digital technology.

He told Barbados TODAY: “We will be able to manage that better because we now have everybody’s details in the SHAPE app so people will be able to get an email telling them when they are supposed to come.

“So we wouldn’t have the same issues that we had with people showing up because you can only come if you get your confirmation to come for your second dose and also we will be able to manage it in a much better way in terms of the numbers of people coming to the locations.

“Certainly, the exercise that we went through collecting all the data, we don’t have to go through that again as we have done that already.”

But the resumption of initial doses and the second phase of delivering second doses now hangs on the arrival of the first wave of COVAX shipments.

Major Clarke warned that while the island’s COVID-19 positivity rate – the percentage of tests that come back positive – continues to fall, residents must continue adhering to the protocols and restrictions established to contain the spread of the virus as the Easter weekend approaches, even if they have received the initial jab.

“Because you have been vaccinated doesn’t mean you shouldn’t adhere to the protocols,” he said. “We still need to adhere, we have only vaccinated over 63 000 people, we still have a long way to go as we are waiting for the supply of vaccines to come. So, I think people should still be cognizant and adhere to the protocols established.”

(anestahenry@barbadostoday.bb)