WESTMORELAND, Jamaica— Medical officer of health for Westmoreland, Dr Marcia Graham, says the take-up of the COVID-19 vaccine in the parish has exceeded expectations.

Dr Graham said that people have been turning out at the Westmoreland Health Department and the Savanna-la-Mar Public General Hospital, where the vaccine is being administered, to get their injections.

The exercise started on Wednesday, and up to Thursday, a total of 170 people had been vaccinated.

Dr Graham says the injections are being administered to health care workers and persons with comorbidities.

“We did 76 vaccines (at the Westmoreland Health Department). We aimed for 30 persons but we ended up doing 76. Over at the hospital, we were aiming for 60 and they did 94, so we exceeded our expectations,” Dr Graham said.

“It’s because people are demanding the service, so we really had a good turn-out and a good response. We are really pleased and we thank the citizens for embracing this new weapon that we have against COVID-19,” she added.

Among the health care professionals who are being vaccinated are public and private doctors, nurses, community health aides, emergency medical services personnel, and others.

“So we are doing a mixture of frontline workers from the public health care system as well as those who are allied as private, and also administering to those in the vulnerable population,” Dr Graham said.

She said that vaccination of the public health staff is being done in batches so that there is no disruption in service delivery at the facilities.