By LEANDRA ROLLE

Tribune Staff reporter

lrolle@tribunemedia.net

HEALTH and Wellness Minister Dr Michael Darville yesterday revealed that the government has secured more than 24,000 paediatric doses of COVID-19 vaccines through the COVAX facility.

However, he gave an assurance that the Pfizer vaccines for children will not be mandatory, but that the initiative to get children vaccinated will be a collaborative effort.

The Health Minister also praised the efforts of the prime minister in helping his ministry to secure the long-awaited doses for children after much negotiations.

He said: “This is good news and the vaccination effort will be collaborative, Minister of Education, because this is dealing with young people. We need to have the schools involved in our plans as well as the parents. At no particular point, do we want to create the impression that the Ministry of Education or Ministry of Health is going to force children to take the vaccine. This is a collaborative effort stemmed by the family and the parent.”

He added: “It’s important that we have the vaccine in country because many families are asking for it for their children. Some don’t want it, but some are asking for it and it’s my job as minister of health to make sure it’s available in the country. I wish to express our gratitude to the United States Embassy and PAHO for the donation of the Pfizer vaccines through the Caribbean Public Health Agency and the COVAX facility. A lot of countries are trying to do what we’re doing but we have diplomatic partners who are coming to our rescue and we need to be grateful.”

It is not clear when the doses will start to be administered, but Dr Darville said the vaccines are expected to be in country “in short order.”

Calls for child doses of COVID vaccinations increased last month after several schools saw an increase in COVID-19 cases.

Yesterday, Dr Darville said the ministry continues to closely monitor the active COVID cases in the country and is working to minimise further virus spread.

He also encouraged locals to continue complying with the current health protocols and also made an appeal for people who have not yet been vaccinated to go out and get their shots.

“While our country’s vaccination rate has been increasing, we have noticed the rate of uptake of vaccinations also slowed. As of June 13, 2022, 49.3 percent of our population has been vaccinated. Some other Caribbean countries are doing a bit better, but some are doing worse.

“But when we compare the vaccinations of persons, which is about 167,483 persons eligible to be vaccinated, we realise that we have a vaccination rate of just over 51.8 percent so we have a ways to go Bahamas and to reach the level that is seen in the United States where you could just drop all of the mandates and what we see throughout the Caribbean.”

He also revealed that over 347,742 doses of the vaccines have been administered, including the first, second, extended and booster doses, since the start of the government’s vaccination programme last year.

He added that the lowest vaccination rate appears to be among persons of the age 30 and below.

“This is not surprising because at the start of the pandemic, this group was thought to be less vulnerable to infections but this perspective has since changed and I encourage all members of the general public who have vaccination hesitancy to visit the ministry’s website to get factual information concerning vaccines in our country.”