Spouse’s COVID torment drives woman, mom to get shots

Mother-daughter pair Novlette and Anika James were among the first set of candidates on Saturday at the COVID-19 vaccination blitz held at the Denbigh Agricultural Showground in Clarendon.

While on her 15-minute observation wait, Aneika, an asthmatic, said she had been driven to get the shot after watching the ordeal her spouse suffered after he contracted the virus.

“To how I see it deal with him, I said I must get my vaccine when it comes. It wasn’t a good sight. He got all the symptoms, everything, but by the help of God, he pulled through and we were his caregiver,” she told The Gleaner.

The younger James is urging Jamaicans to get the jab because COVID-19 is real and would persist for some time.

“Half a bread is better than none at all,” Anika said, referring to the efficacy rate of 76 per cent for the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, which she said was good enough for her.

Novlette, who turns 68 in August, had been making disciples of her neighbours the night before she got immunised. She was happy to pull up her sleeve and be counted among the more than 60,000 Jamaicans who have received the vaccine.

“I really see how this coronavirus do people I love, and I tell you, I pray to God every day that mi nuh contract the virus,” said the retired Bustamante Industrial Trade Union worker.

Cecelia Campbell-Livingston