Vaccinated Jamaicans should be rewarded for investing in the future – Shirley

Chairman of the National COVID-19 Vaccination Operationalisation Task Force, Professor Gordon Shirley, says Jamaicans who have become inoculated against the virus should be able to benefit from their decision to help get the country back to normal.

Addressing a virtual press conference at Jamaica House this morning, Shirley asserted that it is time to start rewarding the 12 per cent of Jamaicans who he said have invested in the future by getting fully vaccinated.

He added that this should also extend to the other 20 per cent of the population who got their first jabs.

“We believe they should be rewarded,” the chairman stated emphatically.

Shirley suggested that Jamaicans be allowed to use the opportunity to celebrate Christmas and other events in well-organised, structured and monitored settings with all the COVID-19 protocols observed.

With Jamaica set to tackle El Salvador in a CONCACOF World Cup Qualifying Friendly on Friday, November 12, he is convinced that the National Stadium is the right place to test this initiative, suggesting that persons who are fully vaccinated could be allowed access to the venue.

However, the task force chairman said the door should also be opened to those who are unvaccinated.

“Persons who are not yet vaccinated can come up the stadium, get vaccinated, maybe the one-shot vaccine or whichever their preference is, and gain access may be in a different section of the facility but would be able to participate the way we use to participate,” he said.

He noted that there are a number of events coming downstream soon that would lend themselves to this kind of activity.

He pointed out that a member of the task force is working closely with the entertainment and sporting fraternities to try to bring this to a reality.

“Christmas is coming and many Jamaicans look forward to a staff party and a Christmas party. We believe that there are opportunities to allow persons who have been vaccinated to begin to return to a level of normalcy that would be associated with events such as those and Christmas would be an ideal time to have it done.”

- Christopher Serju

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