Three vaccination sites across SERHA region to open on Saturday
KINGSTON, Jamaica – The South East Regional Health Authority (SERHA) has announced that three vaccination sites will be opened across three parishes on Saturday, as health officials move to prevent illnesses and deaths associated with COVID-19.
SERHA delivers health care to residents of Kingston and St Andrew, St Catherine and St Thomas.
In a Tweet on Friday, SERHA informed that in St Catherine, the Portmore HEART Academy vaccination site will be open from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm. The Pfizer vaccine is to be administered to persons who visit that site.
In Kingston and St Andrew, vaccinations will be done at the National Arena between 9:00 am and 3:00 pm. However, details regarding the brand of vaccine to be administered at that site will be posted later, SERHA informed.
Meanwhile, the Morant Bay Health Centre will serve as the vaccination site for St Thomas, and it will be open from 9:00 am to 4:00 pm. The Pfizer brand will be administered to those visiting that site.
The Ministry of Health and Wellness has reported that as of 4:00 pm Thursday, a total of 500,605 doses of COVID-19 vaccines had been administered in Jamaica.
Of that number, some 359,675 were first doses, and 139,242 were second doses. The remainder represents single doses from the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, according to a statement from the Ministry of Health and Wellness.
In light of this development, the ministry is well on its way to achieving its target of administering 700,000 doses of vaccines by the end of September.
According to the health ministry, since COVID-19 vaccinations began in March of this year, Jamaica has received “some 1,139,140 doses of vaccines, including from the African Medical Supply Platform, the COVAX Facility, Canada, India, Mexico, the United Kingdom and the United States”.
The vaccines are AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson and Pfizer.
“In the last four weeks alone, we received more than 820,000 of those doses. This is in keeping with the inflows we had predicted, with more to come,” the statement quoted Health and Wellness Minister, Dr Christopher Tufton, as saying.
“The vaccines are here. What we need to do is to make good use of them. I am encouraged by the uptake over the last week, and urge those who have not yet been vaccinated to make every effort to do so,” he stated.
