‘We have to keep pushing’
As Jamaica hits 1m jabs, Tufton admits a long way to go
Published:Monday | November 8, 2021 | 12:10 AMOlivia Brown/Gleaner Writer
Jamaica crossed the psychological milestone of administering one million COVID-19 jabs on Sunday, an important benchmark of progress amid strong scepticism and pushback nationally.
The target was achieved more than three weeks ahead of the end-of-November deadline announced by Prime Minister Andrew Holness in October.
Minister of Health and Wellness Dr Christopher Tufton celebrated the accomplishment and credited the relentless work and dedication of the country’s healthcare workers.
But the minister acknowledged that while the number of jabs administered is encouraging, there is still a long way to go.
With less than 16 per cent of the Jamaican population fully vaccinated, the country lies at the bottom of regional compliance, with only Haiti having a lower per-capita take-up.
“It’s not where you want to be, you’d want to get more Jamaicans to get vaccinated. It is encouraging that we are making some progress and the lesson from this is to just encourage other Jamaicans to come on board,” Tufton told The Gleaner on Sunday.
The minister said the November 1 resumption of Pfizer vaccination created an additional demand for jabs, as many anxious Jamaicans flocked sites to get their second doses. Last month, the ministry had said that more than 100,000 people were due second doses of Pfizer.
Tufton said that the introduction of mobile units accounted for an increase in COVID-19 vaccination, with approximately 200 doses administered daily.
The Holness administration is targeting 65 per cent herd immunity, or about 1.9 million people, in Jamaica by March 2022, but high levels of hesitancy may jeopardise that goal.
“That target is not the absolute ideal, because you’d want all Jamaicans who qualify to get vaccinated. It may be challenging given where we are now and where March is, but we have to keep pushing,” said Tufton.
Many private-sector organisations, as well as the police force and army, have sought to introduce vaccination policies for employees. Several lawsuits have been filed challenging the constitutionality of those schemes.
The Government has hinted that a vaccine-or-test mandate, or ‘option’, will be imposed in the near term, but no timeline has been disclosed.
As at 2:30 p.m. on Sunday, the country administered a total of 1,000,455 doses of COVID-19 vaccines. Of that figure, 553,341 were first doses and 391,782 second shots. More than 55,330 people have been inoculated with the single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine.