It’s time to stop playing the vaccination waiting game, warns Minister of Health Jeffrey Bostic.
He said Barbados had the finance to buy enough vaccines to inoculate everyone on the island, but citizens and residents needed to come forward and take whichever medicine was available at this stage.
The minister said some Barbadians seemed reluctant to take the Chinese-manufactured Sinopharm vaccine, and were instead waiting to take the Pfizer, Moderna and even Johnson & Johnson vaccines when they do become available here.
Co-coordinator of the National Vaccine Programme, Major David Clarke, said yesterday that only 2 332 inoculations with Sinopharm had been conducted since it was rolled out through the National Vaccination Programme on July 13, a daily average rate of just 233. In stark contrast, 16 000 Barbadians were vaccinated with AstraZeneca in its first ten days of availability in February.