Delay in rollout of paediatric COVID-19 vaccine

The rollout of the COVID-19 vaccination for children ages five to 11 will now start on Thursday, two days later than planned, but there is no word yet on where the jabs will be administered.

Last Friday, the island was gifted 14, 400 doses of the paediatric Pfizer vaccine by the United Kingdom government

At the time, Minister of Health and Wellness Ian Gooding-Edghill indicated that health care workers would have been trained to administer the vaccine and children would get the jab at the Vaccination Centre at Harbour Road, St Michael on Tuesday.

However, Co-coordinator of the National COVID-19 Vaccination Campaign, Major David Clarke told Barbados TODAY that additional work had to be done to get the vaccines and the staff administering them ready.

“The training was only completed today, and then the vaccines have to be thawed down and that have not been completed.

“It’s a little more involved than just starting. There are some things that we have to put in place and all of that will not be in place until tomorrow, so Thursday will be the earliest time that we will start,” Clarke said.

The public has been advised that an official statement about where children can be taken to get the vaccine will be provided by the Barbados Government Information Service (BGIS) before Thursday. (SB)