A private sector injection of about $664,000 into the National Vaccination Fund has now brought the fund’s total to just over 10 million dollars.
Republic Bank handed over $250,000 to the fund, while CIBC First Caribbean donated $389,800 and the Shipping Association of Barbados contributed $25,000 at a presentation at the Barbados Defence Force St Ann’s Fort headquarters on Tuesday.
Minister in the Ministry of Finance Ryan Straughn who accepted the donations on behalf of the Government, said the monetary contributions were significant in helping Barbados to accomplish herd immunity.
Straughn reported that at the end of yesterday, the fund had over nine million dollars.
“And your three donations today, which now totals six hundred and sixty-four thousand, eight hundred dollars, now brings that today to 10 million, six hundred and forty-six thousand, five hundred and ninety-six dollars and thirty-one cents,” the minister declared.
“The importance of this is that it allows us the Government of Barbados to continue to roll out not just the vaccine programme, but certainly for us to continue to mount what has been an extraordinary effort to fight this global pandemic.”
Co-Coordinator of the National Vaccination Programme Major David Clarke said the island has already delivered 76,000 first doses and 46,000 second doses, with the eligible population standing at just under 200,000.
Straughn said it was important that all Barbadians eligible for the vaccine have conversations with their doctors about taking it, against the reality that Barbados is preparing to fully open for external business, including welcoming an influx of tourists and returning nationals.
The finance minister said: “We anticipated that we will need to vaccinate close to 300 000 adults in Barbados because we haven’t yet had a vaccine specifically approved for children. And then obviously we have been playing a critical role even with cruise ships. We have also been working with other stakeholders in order to facilitate that process as required.
“So we want to be in a position to ensure that if people are desirous of coming to Barbados and be vaccinated, that they can do so. But the primary objective is to ensure that the population who resides here are vaccinated such that we can have herd immunity so the interaction with visitors would be safer than what obviously is currently the case. We estimate, based on the costing, these funds should be enough to cover the adult population.”
Straughn stressed that the observance of protocols will help to keep the struggling economy open in order to reduce infections and get more people back to work.
“We had to ration what vaccines we would have had initially and not every frontline worker would have been vaccinated in the first round,” said Straughn. “But as we get more and more, we anticipate that that should be done. The reality is that to do this thing safely we need the herd immunity.”
Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Republic Bank Anthony Clerk said that last year the bank also made a donation of $400,000 in the fight against COVID-19. Clerk said the donation to the vaccine programme is important in order for the nation to return to normalcy and commended Barbados for performing well in procuring vaccines in an international environment where accessing the commodity is a challenge.
Clarke said: “Barbados has done a really good job at managing the spread of COVID-19. We have had our ups and downs as expected but we are managing them well thanks to good leadership from the Prime Minister and from your cabinet.
“We see this vaccination programme as a turning point and we want to encourage other business people, and other individuals who have the capacity to also lend their support to the programme.”
CIBC FirstCaribbean managing director Donna Wellington said her bank was pleased to support the vaccination effort while encouraging Barbados to be safe, wear their masks and follow all protocols.
Wellington said: “We also want to encourage the vaccination effort individually. We want to encourage each Barbadian to seek to be vaccinated as soon as possible. This is our second major injection into the vaccination effort and to COVID support. Initially, we provided US$500,000 [$1 million] regionally for PPE for frontline workers and CIBC FirstCaribbean has across the region donated US$750,000 [$1.5 million] towards this effort for vaccinations.”
Simone Phillips, Vice President of the Shipping Association of Barbados, acknowledged the association’s $25,000 donation may appear to be meagre, but said it was overwhelmed with happiness to make a contribution to an important cause.
“We know that the fight is nowhere near over and we wanted to assist in some way in this fight as we look forward to the Government of Barbados continuing the excellent job that they have done in working towards protecting the people of Barbados against this formidable enemy,” Phillips said.
(AH)
