KINGSTON, Jamaica — The Private Sector Vaccine Initiative (PSVI) says that since March this year, it has invested more than $25 million in support of a range of activities related to the Ministry of Health and Wellness’ national vaccination plan roll out.

The PSVI said in addition to the 400 tablets and other resources already donated to the national vaccination activities, the latest collaborative effort is the Vaccination Management System called CommCare.

It said CommCare was fully funded by UNICEF as part of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) among the aid agency, the health ministry and the PSVI that was signed on March 17, while the PSVI funded an IT project manager and leveraged subject matter experts from private sector to ensure the system was delivered in time for the second dose vaccination exercise.

During an event to hand over the system to Health and Wellness Minister Dr Christopher Tufton on Monday, June 14 in Kingston, Peter Melhado, chair of the Logistics and Operation Committee of the PSVI outlined that: “The PSVI worked with the Ministry of Health and Wellness and the various software providers to automate the customer’s scheduling and registration experience, provide a secure database of the vaccinated population with the ability to perform data analytics and complex, multi-data reporting as well as increase the efficiency of on-site operations.”

He added that collaborating with key stakeholders proved to be an ideal approach to implementing an effective platform for both the user and the provider of these services.

“It’s been a privilege working with the Ministry and UNICEF (United Nations Children’s Fund) over these past four months. We had an objective to develop and deliver a world-class platform to serve all stakeholders and I really believe that what we’ve done here serves as an example of how the private and public sectors can work together, along with the multilateral agencies, to effect impactful results in these challenging times,” Melhado continued.

Meanwhile Melhado, who is also the president and CEO of the ICD Group, announced that the PSVI would be engaging the private sector leaders in a programme of pre-registration for the vaccination of the productive sector, which is expected for phase two of the National Vaccination Plan (NVP).

“We believe it is important to mobilise the productive sector as we work toward the start of phase two, to ensure that the take-up rate among this critical segment is high. So, we are going to work really hard at pre-registering all of our team members within the various business sectors so that when we get to phase two we will have folks ready to come and take up the vaccine,” he said.

The businessman assured the minister that although the systems is now handed over to the ministry, the PSVI is committed to continuing its support of the National Vaccination Plan, via logistical, financial and technical support, right through to the attainment of population immunity. 

“Achieving the NVP’s targets remains the single most important element of returning to normalcy as a private sector and as a country and we will play our part in making this happen,” he said.