By LEANDRA ROLLE

Tribune Staff Reporter

lrolle@tribunemedia.net

DOZENS of hotel workers received their first dose of the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine at the Atlantis resort on Friday.

The move, officials said, will help as a major boost to traveller confidence in The Bahamas and support the country’s economic recovery from the coronavirus pandemic.

Speaking to reporters, Princess Margaret Hospital Administrator, Mary Walker, said the Atlantis site can vaccinate between 300 to 500 people a day similar to that of other identified centres.

She added that officials were expecting to inoculate some 300 Atlantis employees on its first day of operations.

“I think we have over 300 booked for today, yes, as the inaugural day,” Mrs Walker said.

“We’re trying to get as much in as possible and… we’ve been having a very good response thus far from all of the sites that we’re doing it and as we roll out more sites, you’ll realise that we move from area to area, a part of that is because – and I keep saying it – these are the same professionals moving from place to place to make sure we can get this all done in the shortest time frame as possible.”

The Paradise Island site was one of several vaccination centres that opened this week after the government’s National Vaccine Consultative Committee expanded the vaccine programme to include teachers, school staff and hospitality workers, among others.

However, each vaccination centre has assigned priority groups, with Atlantis and Baha Mar only accepting appointments from hospitality workers.

On Friday, Denise Barnes, Atlantis Human Resources executive director, was the first person to receive the jab at the site, located in Atlantis’ Beach Towers building.

Ms Barnes said she decided to get inoculated as a means of being “proactive” in the country’s fight against COVID-19.

Asked about how workers feel about getting the vaccines, she replied that the response from employees has been “good” so far.

“We have asked people periodically because you may know that we do the antigen testing quite often, weekly really with our employees and they are really tired of this level of uncertainty and so anything that we can do for them to go back to a sense of normalcy, they seem prepared to do.”

However, Ms Barnes also stressed that vaccinations for workers will not be mandatory for those who do not want to take it.

“It is not mandated. This is not compulsory. This is purely voluntary,” she told reporters. “If you want to do it, then you do it. Even right now, if people are being asked to return to work and they say I’m not ready yet for whatever reason, that’s not being held against them because their safety is paramount to them.”

“I know that we have sent out the communications and the responses have been good, and you see there are some people who already waiting and I’m pretty sure that there are a number of people waiting for those whose going to go first and I’m sure by tomorrow and the rest of the week, they’ll be in here.”

Atlantis employees returned to work on December 10, after the mega resort closed in March due to COVID-19 restrictions that affected travel and movement.

Since the resort reopened, workers there have been required to take a rapid antigen test weekly as a part of its health and safety protocols.

It is not clear how many workers have tested positive via the rapid antigen tests, but Ms Barnes told reporters that officials felt confident in the resort’s COVID-19 preventive measures.

She said: “I can’t talk about the stats right, but we are comfortable that we are nowhere near at risk or anything to be heightened about or anything to be frightened about, so you know the good thing is not just about the testing, but it’s all about the health and safety protocols that we have.”

Asked if workers who choose not to get vaccinated will have to pay for their rapid antigen tests moving forward, the executive director replied: “We have not decided on that as yet. I mean we don’t want anything to be considered punitive. I don’t know yet if something will change. At this time, whatever we need to do which means us paying for the rapid antigen test, we will continue to do that.”

Baha Mar has strongly urged workers to get the vaccine and has offered staff members who receive two doses of the shot a half day’s base pay.

The Cable Beach resort also began vaccinating its staff members and other hospitality workers Friday.

In response to Baha Mar’s vaccine incentive for its workers, an official at the Atlantis resort said it does not have to force resort staff to “do the right thing.”

On Friday, Ms Barnes added: “We have not talked about any incentives at this time because so far as I’ve said, the interest has been very positive and we are just excited about welcoming our guests and so anything we need to do, we do.”

“That’s why we have long lines at Town Centre Mall on Blake Road for people to get their rapid tests because they want to be to work so if this is yet another opportunity to be to work and stay at work and to blow our customers away, we are prepared to do it, incentives or not.”

Atlantis’ Vice President of Supply Chain, Purchasing and Procurement, Ivan James Jr was also vaccinated at the mega resort on Friday.

He told reporters he felt fine after getting the jab. He encouraged others to take it.

“I think this is going to help the economy and help the flow of people and trade and hopefully we get back to where we were a year and a half ago,” he said.

Christina Bain, assistant director of the resort’s health and safety department, added: “I got the vaccine because I felt that I needed to get the added protection from the vaccine because of my age and what I do and also because I want to be an advocate for the vaccine, and I wanted to keep myself and my family and community safe.”

Last Month, Tourism Minister Dionisio D’Aguilar told Tribune Business that vaccinating front-line hotel and tourism industry staff “as quickly as possible” remains the only viable option for creating a faster tourism rebound from the COVID-19 pandemic.

With economic diversification likely to take years, he argued that fully vaccinating Bahamians who tourists come into contact with will provide the country with a valuable health and safety marketing tool that can be used to attract visitors as the threat posed by COVID-19 slowly starts to recede worldwide.