BRIDGETOWN, Barbados (CMC) — With Barbados expecting to receive 100,000 doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine this week, public health nurses have declared their readiness to undertake the largest mass vaccination programme in the island’s history, to fight the spread of the highly contagious virus.

Public Health Nurse and Senior Health Sister at the Winston Scott Polyclinic, Rosanette Cooke, disclosed Sunday, during a press conference, that preparations ahead of the roll-out of the vaccination campaign commenced last Friday to examine all eventualities, including allergic reactions in some patients after receiving the vaccine.

“We have actually prepared our emergency trays…. We have all of our supplies ready, just waiting for the start date,” said Cooke, who has been in charge of vaccination programmes out of the Winston Scott Polyclinic since 2011.

After the vaccine is administered, immunised individuals will be monitored for 15 minutes before being discharged.

Coordinator of the National COVID-19 Vaccination Campaign, Dr Elizabeth Ferdinand, added the vaccine would not be administered to anyone under the age of 18, people who are allergic to the vaccine’s components, or people who have severe allergies, including those who use an EpiPen – a medical device used in emergencies to treat very severe allergic reactions.

Dr Ferdinand, who announced the pending arrival of the vaccines which would be given to 50,000 people, as it is administered in two doses, is finalising arrangements for the vaccine rollout by teams headed by senior health sisters.

“We are hoping to have about 30 teams, each team has about eight or nine people in it operating out of the nine polyclinics,” she said.

It was also revealed that an application was being developed to provide individuals with an electronic copy of their certificate of vaccination, upon administration of the COVID-19 vaccine.

Dr Ferdinand said while people would receive a “hard copy” of their vaccination record, authorities were working on “a new app, where you can have your information that you’ve already entered updated, and you would be able to get your vaccination card or certification electronically”.

Meantime, Dr Ferdinand who insisted that the vaccine is “safe and suitable”, was among officials who urged members of the public to take the opportunity to be immunised.

Deputy Dean of Internationalisation and Recruitment of the Faculty of Medical Sciences at The University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Campus, Dr Kenneth Connell, stressed the more people who took it, the better for the entire population.

“If there is one positive population benefit that all of us can get besides herd immunity, it is to stop the emergence of variants, since all of us would have some type of immunity,” he said.

President of the Barbados Association of Medical Practitioners (BAMP), Dr Lynda Williams, also sought to assure the public that the COVID-19 vaccine would not cause any major harmful effects.

“We believe that the AstraZeneca vaccine is a good vaccine for our population at this time,” she said.

Seeking to dispel misinformation about the vaccines, including that they contain microchips to be used as part of a campaign to control people, Dr Williams added: “None of these things are true, and vaccines have kept our nation and all the nations of the world safe.”

Dr Ferdinand also stressed the importance of people over the age of 65 taking the vaccine. She said they needed to be targeted as it had been shown that the majority of people who got the virus, with it progressing to being serious, were the elderly and those with chronic diseases.

“So, we are going to be trying to vaccinate as many of the elderly as possible,” she said, acknowledging that any concerns about taking the vaccine should be discussed with a medical practitioner.