PM: More than 65, 000 people fully vaccinated

Prime Minister Mia Mottley once again thanked all healthcare workers in institutions across Barbados, staff in the Ministry of Health and Wellness and all Barbadians for the strides the country has made in the fight against COVID-19.

She also publicly thanked Minister of Health and Wellness, Lieutenant Colonel Jeffrey Bostic, for his leadership during an address to the nation on Saturday.

Acknowledging that the journey had not been easy, the Prime Minister said we are “only here today because every single Barbadian who felt that they could make a difference and to alter their behaviour have done so and allowed the country to be able to reflect these extremely, extremely better numbers in terms of our improvement”.

She further stated: “The fact that the last period of time from the 19th of March to the 18th of June over this quarter, that we have been able to see a consistent reduction in cases month by month … is a matter of total, total pride for me as leader of this nation. It has not been an easy road, but you have done it!”

Mottley said the declining positivity rate placed Government in a position to continue the process to allow Barbadians to participate in more activities, while maintaining vigilance.

She cautioned the public that COVID-19 would still be around for at least another 18 months, if not years or decades, unless the world had the capacity to produce enough vaccines to handle the variants and the mutations of the virus.

The Prime Minister noted that the vaccines had proven to be effective so far and the fear of taking the jab had been “mitigated”, based on the evidence which proved their efficacy against those variants.

Additionally, she shared that 91,569 people had their first vaccine, while 65, 395 people, or just under a third of the adult population, had received both jabs, making them fully protected from getting critically ill from the virus.

She said an additional 26,000 people, who would soon be receiving their second vaccination, would take the vaccination rate to just over 41 per cent when completed.

Mottley added that Government was awaiting the arrival of additional vaccines and was searching for vaccines for children and teenagers, aged 12 to18, before the start of the new school term in September.

She cautioned Barbadians that now was not the time to spoil the gains that had been made, recognising that we “still had to earn our keep in this world nationally and individually”.