Low Vaccination Rates Across the Island

The Health Ministry continues to implore citizens to get vaccinated amid low vaccination rates right across the island, with several parishes falling behind. Approximately 13.3 percent of the population has been fully vaccinated so far. Up to the morning of Tuesday, October 26, 899, 344 doses of COVID-19 vaccines had been administered. Of that number 535,861 were first doses, 317, 672 second doses, and 45, 811 single dose Johnson and Johnson vaccine.

Even so, Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Jacquiline Bisasor-Mckenzie says the low vaccination rates is proven in the decline in the take-up of both second and first doses. Up to October 31, some 73, 000 persons are due their second dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine. The CMO says the vaccination rate is particularly low in several parishes, such as Clarendon and St. Catherine, where 84 percent of the population is unvaccinated.

Health Minister, Dr. Christopher Tufton is urging citizens to make use of the vaccination sites across the island; among them fixed, mobile, and shut-in operations. He says an additional 100 private doctors will begin to administer COVID-19 vaccines free of cost to their patients, starting Wednesday, October 27.