Acting Chairman of the National Health Fund (NHF) Shane Dalling has all but stated that an act of sabotage may have been responsible for the breakdown in the operation of one of the cold rooms at the NHF Pharmaceutical Warehouse, which left more than 900,000 vaccine doses exposed.

Responding to questions during tonight’s COVID Conversations press briefing, Dalling said the NHF board of management called in the police to investigate the matter after receiving the management’s response and collecting all the statements from the persons who were responsible for responding to the “temperature excursion” at the facility.

“We found preliminarily that a wire was cut for the cooling system and the explanation given as to why the personnel didn’t respond in a timely manner was sufficient cause for concern to call in the police and to also request an independent assessment by a firm outside of the organistion to protect the integrity of the process and the credibility of the NHF and the storage facility,” Dalling said.

“We need to ensure that the report is clear and anyone who is culpible must be held accountable and therefore we felt it necessary that, based on what we saw preliminarily, it required intervention of outside persons.”

Earlier in the day, the NHF board of management said the incident occurred on Christmas Eve (December 24) .

The board of management said the NHF immediately suspended the distribution of the vaccines that were stored in the affected cold room.

It however stressed that there are approximately 500,000 doses of COVID vaccines available to continue Jamaica’s COVID vaccination programme.

These doses were stored in another of the cold rooms operated at the NHF Pharmaceutical Warehouse.

During tonight’s press briefing, Health and Wellness Minister Dr Christopher Tufton dismissed any concern that the country could now be left in short supply if there is a rush for vaccinations in reaction to the spiking rate of COVID-19 infection currently impacting the island.

In fact, Tufton said, with the continuing vaccine take up remaining disappointing, a rush for vaccines would actually be welcomed at this time.

READ: Police probe as thousands of vaccine doses potentially compromised after breakdown at NHF storage facility