St Kitts and Nevis: St. Kitts & Nevis’ Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Hazel Laws, said that the procurement in the first instance of 21, 600 doses of the COVID-19 Vaccine, will provide coverage for 20 percent of the national population.
She said this during the National Emergency Operations Center (NEOC) COVID-19 Press Briefing on February 10. “The doses are the product of AstraZeneca and Oxford University vaccines,” she said.
“The start date for delivery can be as early as mid to late February. However, there were some conditions where the specific date of delivery would be dependent on the WHO Emergency Use List Approval Process and some other steps, which include our own implementation of our vaccination plan and our regulatory preparedness,” said Dr. Laws.
“It specified that about 25 – 35% of the amount would be supplied in the first quarter and about 65-75% in the second quarter,” she said.
“The data from the clinical trials suggest that it offers a 62 percent efficacy, but the clinical trials had since found that the vaccine had an efficacy of about 82 percent when two doses were given 12 weeks apart,” said Dr. Laws.
Prime Minister Dr. Timothy Harris remarked a comment on India, a country that is giving free Coronavirus vaccines to many countries, including CARICOM.
India has promised to give 350,000 Oxford Astra-Zeneca vaccines to the Caribbean.
PM Harris said,” As CARICOM lead on health, I want to record our region’s appreciation to PMO India Narendra Modi of India for the generous contribution to our health and wellbeing at this time of great challenge given Covid19.”
He further noted,” We invite the G7 to follow India’s lead. “
The vaccine, including the transportation, would be shipped at the Indian government’s expense by air cargo. The highly hailed Oxford Astra-Zeneca vaccine will ensure the Caribbean region launch a vaccination campaign to give the vaccine to the nations’ most vulnerable people.
