More than 1,000 Jamaicans received COVID-19 vaccines last Friday in a vaccination blitz staged by St Andrew East Rural Member of Parliament Juliet Holness for her constituents.

Vaccinations were delivered between 9:00 am and 3:00 pm at three “strategically placed” locations — St Martin de Porres Primary School, St Benedict’s Primary School, and Mavis Bank High School — in order, Holness explained, to cover as many people in the vast constituency’s five divisions.

“We decided to do this blitz because the rural nature of the constituency is as such that people have to travel as far as 14 or so miles through very rough terrain to be able to make it to the vaccination sites in Kingston,” Holness, who is also the prime minister’s wife, told the Jamaica Observer.

“It has been a very good turnout. The people are very grateful because they appreciate the savings in terms of transport,” Holness said, referring to the fact that transportation was provided for those who needed it.

“Many took the opportunity of the transport, some transported themselves,” she added.

At about 1:00 pm when Holness spoke to the Sunday Observer, she reported that more than 200 people had already been vaccinated at Mavis Bank, 300 at Bull Bay, and 400 at St Martin de Porres Primary School in Gordon Town.

O’Bryan Spence, who lives in Harbour View, was among those who got vaccinated at St Benedict’s. He told the Sunday Observer that he took the jab because he was “tired of the virus”.

“I believe getting vaccinated gives you a fighting chance if you contract the virus,” Spence said, adding that six members of his family have so far been vaccinated. He’s now trying to convince his parents and two younger sisters to take the vaccine.

Spence said he thinks most Jamaicans don’t understand vaccination. “People think it is something that will prevent them from getting infected. When they talk about side effects they don’t realise that even babies have side effects, like fever, when they get vaccinated,” he said in reference to the mumps, measles and rubella vaccine that is compulsory for all infants.

Holness, while happy with the vaccine uptake in the constituency, said she was still experiencing resistance.

“I have found some people who are anti-vaxers who are discouraging people from coming out and giving them alternative information,” she said. However, “many of those anti-vaxers have gone quietly to get vaccinated themselves.”

“So we are trying to encourage the people who are still hesitant to spend the time to listen and to learn. If you don’t feel like you want to take the vaccine that’s your choice, nobody can force you, but you shouldn’t discourage other persons because we are seeing what the hospitals look like; we are at full capacity, there are no available beds for persons,” she said.

“Unfortunately, having a friend or a relative that has died literally is the wake-up call for too many and we don’t want that to be the case,” Holness added.