CMO puts nation on alert for new COVID subvariants
J’cans being urged to get jabs as holiday travel picks up
Published:Friday | December 16, 2022 | 1:51 AMJudana Murphy/Gleaner Writer
As the winter tourist season commences, Chief Medical Officer (CMO) Dr Jacquiline Bisasor-McKenzie has empahsised that Jamaica remains vulnerable to COVID-19
She explained that the Omicron variant continues to mutate, and the subvariants present in the United States will be new to the Jamaican population.
“If we have a lot of persons coming in, then we are going to see the population being exposed to a new subvariant. It means that persons who have been vaccinated still have protection against severe illness. However, for many persons, the vaccine coverage may be waning, and so they need to go and get their boosters,” the CMO said at a press conference on Thursday.
Bisasor-McKenzie said Jamaicans who are yet to receive a single COVID-19 shot remain in a “very precarious situation” and urged them to get vaccinated.
“We do expect that there is going to be an increase in the number of cases, but the majority of the cases are going to be asymptomatic, especially in vaccinated persons and persons who have had COVID-19 before. But the numbers will go up, but they will remain undetected. For those vulnerable persons, if they are exposed, [that] can result in problems,” Bisasor-McKenzie.
Acting national epidemiologist Dr Ardene Harris said key COVID-19 indicators are low, but the country’s vaccination rate remains a source of concern.
With the administration of 1,505,390 doses up to December 13, about 27.2 per cent of Jamaicans have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19, while 30.8 per cent have received at least one dose.
Meanwhile, approximately 530,000 COVID-19 expired vaccines have been discarded since Jamaica began administering COVID-19 jabs in March 2021.
Director of family health services in the Ministry of Health and Wellness, Dr Melody Ennis, said the global standard for wastage ranges from 10 to 30 per cent. She noted that Jamaica falls within this range at just about 11 per cent.
But Bisasor-McKenzie reasoned that the standards apply to routine vaccination, noting that on some occasions, Jamaica received more vaccines than needed.
“We have to consider the COVID-19 situation a little differently … . Even though our requirement may be less, we may be forced in a situation to take the additional vaccines simply to allow the population to have access. The most important thing for us during the COVID-19 pandemic was to ensure that we have vaccines,” the CMO said.
Ennis said that more than 400,000 doses of Pfizer, just under 200,000 doses of Sinopharm, and approximately 70,000 doses of Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccines are currently available.
“We do have adequate stock and continue to encourage persons to participate in taking these vaccines,” she said.
Ennis said that Jamaica last received vaccines from the COVAX facility in February and from bilateral partners in April.
“We have received from our partners and have had vaccines in stock and, therefore, we have not been actively trying to acquire vaccines because we certainly want to limit wastage,” she said.