Get vaccinated despite the reduction in COVID-19 cases – Hanover CMO

WESTERN BUREAU:

HANOVER’S CHIEF Medical Officer Dr Kaushal Singh has expressed the view that while the COVID-19 infections within the parish are trending down, he is disappointed that persons across the parish are not taking the vaccines.

“The COVID-19 situation with regard to the number of cases is drastically down. We have some days without having any positive samples, but the most disappointing thing is that our vaccination take-up is going down, almost 50 per cent less in comparison to last month,” Singh told The Gleaner in an interview.

He stated that the Hanover Health Department (HHD) has tried to analyse the reasons for the downturn in the take-up of the vaccine and has come up with four theories why this is happening.

“First thing we realise is that the fear factor is going down, while the second thing is that when there was a travel pressure for the vaccination, people would come in to get the vaccine. But that is now gone also,” he argued.

“Third point is that the people are not as enthusiastic again as the novelty of the disease is gone, the disease is now here for two years and the people are trying to normalise it in their lives. Also, the mildness of the latest variant is having an impact on the decision of the people to get the vaccine,” he stated.

Singh said that he has every reason to believe that there might be another spike in the virus in the near future, as it is still present in the country, although at a lesser level, and there are still persons around with health conditions that can cause them to be seriously affected.

“It (COVID-19) is still here, we have a large number of our population that are elderly and there are a lot of people around with comorbidities and they are still vulnerable,” Singh noted, adding that people in those categories should be at the front of the line to get the vaccine, but it is not so in Hanover.

“Next time we do not know how deadly it (an outbreak) will be,” he stated, making reference to the number of persons across the parish who are open to infection because of their vulnerabilities.

He argued that with respect to opening up of the country, the risks and benefits involved have to be taken into consideration. He said that with two years of the disease creating havoc in the country, life was virtually at a standstill for most people.

“Now we have a low number of cases in the country, so we can try (opening up) and see how it goes,” Singh opined.

He said that the health services islandwide will not be scaling down their offerings, but will not be doing so before a minimum of another six months, irrespective of decisions taken by policymakers.

He insisted that whether there is an opening up of the country or not, the nation needs to maintain four health protocols for a while, so as to live with what he describes as the new normal. The four health protocols recommended by Singh are social distancing, hand sanitising, mask-wearing and getting vaccinated.

He was emphatic that the policymakers within the country should not hesitate to reimpose restrictions if it is noticed that COVID-19 infections start moving in an upward direction.