Jamaica likely to miss vaccine target date

Jamaica's Chief Medical Officer (CMO) Dr Jacquiline Bisasor-McKenzie says the target of having 65 per cent of the population vaccinated against the novel coronavirus by March 2022 will likely not be possible.

Addressing a Gleaner Editor's Forum held at the Jamaica Pegasus hotel yesterday, the CMO said that while the Government is still encouraging the population to get vaccinated, the low take-up rate of vaccines will force them to push the goal post backward.

"The numbers now are disappointing. We see the fall-off so therefore it may be that we might not reach that target by March based on present numbers that we're seeing. But we continue to try and to get the message out but based on the present levels that we're seeing it may be that we have to put a different date if we're gonna put a date on this," said Bisasor-McKenzie.

The Government had initially set the goal earlier this year. Currently, the country has administered just over 1.1 million doses of vaccines with about 530,000 people being fully vaccinated.

Amid the rise of the Omicron variant of the novel coronavirus, the country is expecting a fourth wave. The CMO said that preparations are under way to combat this.

"Well in terms of the fourth wave, what we have to make sure is that first of all we are employing people to get vaccinated to protect, especially the vulnerable population. The public health measures in terms of the wearing of masks, physical distancing, hand sanitising, all those are still there so we encourage people to do that," she said. "We also are preparing in terms of our hospitals to make sure that we have all the supplies that are needed, oxygen included in terms of our main suppliers having that capacity to increase to supplement their local production. That is being done to make sure that we are prepared."

As of Tuesday, Jamaica has recorded 91,578 positive cases of COVID-19. The virus has also claimed 2,415 lives.