KINGSTON, Jamaica — Professor Clive Landis, immunologist and chairman of The University of the West Indies COVID-19 Task Force, is urging Caribbean people to get vaccinated against COVID-19 once they are eligible.

The AstraZeneca-Oxford COVID-19 vaccine has arrived in the Caribbean, marking “the start of a new phase in the pandemic in which we start the ‘fight back’ against COVID-19,” said Professor Landis, in a statement from the UWI.

“This is an exciting time in the pandemic in which we have the opportunity to save lives and curb the spread. I really want to urge all persons who are eligible according to their risk category by age or profession to take the vaccine,” he said.

Earlier this month, Barbados received a donation of 100,000 doses of vaccine from India and has subsequently shared the doses with Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana, Dominica, Grenada and St Lucia among some other Eastern Caribbean territories.

Professor Landis noted that the AstraZeneca vaccine has shown 76 per cent efficacy after one shot and 82 per cent efficacy after the booster shot in the latest phase three clinical trial involving more than 35,000 people in the UK, South Africa and Brazil. He also stated that the European Medicines Agency has given full regulatory approval for people over 18 and the World Health Organisation has likewise endorsed the AstraZeneca vaccine for all adults over 18 and against all strains of the virus.

Addressing concerns about the effectiveness of the COVID-19 vaccines, Professor Landis affirmed: “Even for those persons who may still contract the virus, vaccination prevents all severe disease and hospitalisations.”