Prime Minister Andrew Holness has indicated that the Government is maintaining its goal of having around 70 per cent of the population vaccinated against COVID-19, despite concerns around the availability of vaccines to be deployed under its ongoing programme.

Last week, the Government revealed that it would be holding off on second dose vaccinations over the weekend for individuals under age 50 as it seeks to source more vaccines to fill the demand.

Many of the Holness administration’s hopes for sourcing more vaccines are currently pinned on a promise from the Joe Biden administration to provide vaccines to be distributed to developing nations through the World Health Organisation’s COVAX facility.

ISSUE OF AVAILABILITY

“I am not aware that we have adjusted the target date of 65 – 70 per cent of the population receiving herd immunity by March next year. However, there is no question that our plans would have been set back by the delays in receiving vaccines,” Holness said as he responded to media queries on the matter during an emergency press conference which had primarily been called to announce the establishment of a zone of special operations in Norwood, St James.

“What I can say to you is that, from a fiscal standpoint, meaning from the allocation of resources from the national budget, that we have the resources available, set aside to purchase vaccines. The issue is one of availability.”

Ahead of this weekend’s vaccination blitz, more than 220,000 Jamaicans had received at least one dose of the AstraZeneca coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccine, of which 51,908 persons a had been fully vaccinated while 168,758 had received their first dose.

According to Health Minister Dr Christopher Tufton, around 35,000 people have been impacted by the delay in second dose vaccines for individuals under 50, but it is expected that more vaccines will be sourced in time for it to remaine effective.

Today, Holness said the Government welcomed an announcement Biden and other leaders of the G7 that they would provide vaccines to COVAX and other entities and bilaterally to countries directly.

“That should significantly ease the shortages that we are experiencing,” the prime minister said.

“We also note that Jamaica received an allocation of 75,000 doses a month or so ago and we were able to deploy that in rapid order. So that also speaks as well to our abilitiy to still meet that target deadline because we have demonstrated that we have the capacity to properly deploy and administer vaccines and we could indeed even ramp that up even further. So I would want to think that we should be able to maintain that if we go with the intensity that wewe had displayed in deploying 75,000 doses over a few days.”

Holness said that, with Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade Kamina Johnson Smith in constant contact with US officials, the administration is expecting to have positive news to report regarding vaccines next month.