Boosters ready; still not enough coming for first jabs – Ferdinand

With tens of thousands of COVID-19 vaccines set to expire in the next two months, health authorities are hoping they can be used to provide booster shots.

Public health specialist and Co-Coordinator of the National COVID-19 Vaccination Campaign, Dr Elizabeth Ferdinand today acknowledged that the booster shots were being offered to provide further protection as the country continues to battle the Delta outbreak.

She revealed there were currently close to 50,000 doses available and booster shots would initially be made available to persons in three categories; people over the age of 70, people who are immunocompromised and frontline workers who are exposed to high risks.

Dr Ferdinand said eligible persons would be those who had taken their second dose by the end of April.

She insisted the booster shot was entirely optional.

Healthcare workers at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH) were among the first to receive their booster shots yesterday.

“We have at least about 15, 000 that are expiring in October and we have another 30, 000 doses that will expire in December, so we have 45, 000 doses that can do first, seconds and boosters…and we’re hoping that we will use up quite a big portion of what we have by October 31. But we have other vaccines, AstraZeneca, which is going to expire in December and so we have to not only get the first doses used up, but also second doses and with an interval of eight weeks between the two you can understand that the vaccines that are expiring in December we are going to have a hard task to get all of them used up,” Dr Ferdinand said.

“I must stress that this is entirely optional. It is just that we are offering it at this time. As you know our number of cases is escalating daily and far too many Barbadians are getting COVID, so we are trying to give that extra boost to especially the older persons at this time.”

However, during a press conference this morning Dr Ferdinand made it clear she was not satisfied with the rate at which persons were coming forward to be vaccinated.

Additionally, she admitted there was also some concern around the number of vaccinated persons who were still testing positive for the respiratory virus.

“Let me say that I am not happy with the uptick rate. The uptick rate is still very slow and yes we were waiting until everybody was completely vaccinated but then we would be waiting and waiting and waiting because not enough people are coming forward. So we have decided to go forward, especially at this time when we are getting so many cases and some of the people who are fully vaccinated, a few of them are also coming down with the COVID, thank God not as a serious disease but they’re still catching it and increasing our numbers,” Dr Ferdinand lamented.

She sternly defended Government’s decision to administer the booster shots, saying it was done with other vaccinations.

“We know that in many other cases of diseases that vaccines are not 100 per cent effective all the time so there is always a necessity to do a booster. We do boosters for polio, we have five and six doses of polio, we have boosters for tetanus, we have boosters for most of the vaccines so this is no different,” Dr Ferdinand maintained.

She disclosed there was currently one fixed site at the Masonic Lodge where the booster shot would be administered.

Dr Ferdinand said while authorities were working towards opening another location a lack of staff was hampering that attempt. randybennett@barbadostoday.bb