Jamaica gets Africa Medical covid19 vaccines

JAMAICA has received 75,000 doses of the AstraZeneca covid19 vaccine through the Africa Medical Supplies Platform for covid19 vaccines.

In June 2020, then Caricom chairman Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley announced that Caricom countries could secure vaccines through this medium.

She had said, "We, therefore, welcome this opportunity which has become available through inter-regional discussion. This underlines the strength of the relationship between Africa and Caricom.”

And in a Facebook video posted on Friday, the country's health minister Dr Christopher Tufton confirmed it was the first Caricom country to get vaccines through this platform.

He said, "This shipment is going to be used for our (vaccination) blitz exercise, starting this weekend.

"As early as tomorrow (Friday), we’re going to be dispatching. The intention is to inoculate as many persons as possible, hopefully well over 50,000. We are doing 60 years and over, and we are including now our teachers and we are also including our hotel workers.

“We have another shipment coming in this month from Covax. Approximately 50,000 doses should come in about the third week of April, and possibly another shipment for 20,000."

Trinidad and Tobago will also receive some 426,000 vaccines through this platform, but a date is yet to be announced.

The latest from Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh was that the ministry is "in talks" with the platform