Low vax take-up threatens to derail inoculation target for March
268,280 doses of AstraZeneca to expire by end of October
Published:Wednesday | October 6, 2021 | 5:24 PM
Permanent Secretary in the Health Ministry Dunstan Bryan has signalled that a falloff in demand for COVID-19 vaccines is the biggest challenge now threatening to derail the Government's target of vaccinating 65 per cent of the population by March 2022.
The senior technocrat told the Public Administration and Appropriations Committee (PAAC) of Parliament that ministry staff were only able to inoculate 4,000 persons across Jamaica on Tuesday.
“It is the core of our problem now, how do we generate demand for the supply that we have based on the different access points that we have established across the country,” Bryan said.
He said in order for Jamaica's 65 per cent target to be met by March next year, at least 15,000 Jamaicans would have to receive the jab daily.
The permanent secretary contended that the argument around the demand for the vaccines going forward has to be “a whole of government, whole of society approach”.
And health officials who appeared before the PAAC today revealed that another 268,280 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine are set to expire by the end of October.
However, chief medical officer Dr Jacquiline Bisasor-McKenzie told committee members earlier that approximately 170,000 Jamaicans are due second doses of AstraZeneca by the end of the month.
Last week, the health ministry dumped between 55,000 and 60,000 doses of AstraZeneca that had expired at the end of September.
At the end of November this year, another 100,000 doses of AstraZeneca will expire.
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