Vaccine loss would be a tragedy, Golding says
WESTMORELAND, Jamaica — Opposition leader Mark Golding is urging the Government to do all it can to get the available doses of Oxford AtraZeneca vaccines into arms before they expire at 11:59 pm.
“We are not in a position to waste vaccines in Jamaica. We have had terrible problems procuring vaccines or vaccines have been late. The level of vaccination lags way behind the rest of the region, and we all know that to get the society and the economy back to any state of normalcy, we have to get the vaccination numbers up,” he said.
Golding was speaking with OBSERVER ONLINE during a tour of the Savanna-la-Mar Public General Hospital on Wednesday.
“I don’t know what the Government is doing to try to encourage people to come in and use them up before they expire, but this will be a real tragedy to lose 60,000 doses,” added Golding.
The batch of vaccines is among the last shipment of 300,000 doses donated by the United Kingdom in July.
During his visit to the hospital, Golding also expressed disappointment in the late start of the Savanna-la-Mar field hospital.
“They are attributing that to the weather but the starting of it was late based on what we have heard. So, they need to hurry that up,” said the Opposition leader.
“We spoke to the project manager and he assured us that things should be moving more briskly now.”
Earlier this month, Health and Wellness Minister, Dr Christopher Tufton, had stated that work is expected to soon begin on the much-anticipated 36-bed field hospital which will address overcapacity at the Savanna-la-Mar Hospital. He had also indicated that it will cost $11 million to construct the base that will house the material already donated for the construction of the facility.
Anthony Lewis