At least nine health departments across the island have begun house to house vaccination. Healthcare teams, including public health nurses and community health aides from Hanover, Manchester, St. Elizabeth, Trelawny, Westmoreland, St. Ann, St. Mary, Portland and St. Thomas have been deployed to communities across the island to administer the COVID-19 vaccines to shut-ins, disabled and the elderly.
According to Health & Wellness Minister, Dr. the Hon. Christopher Tufton, “This house to house vaccination programme is intended to take vaccines to communities that are not close to a fixed site and to persons who are not able to travel to these sites.”
This represents another phase in the national vaccination efforts and is in keeping with the principles of the programme, which includes national equity – developing appropriate deployment strategy and distribution infrastructure to ensure access to priority population.
“I want to salute our public health workers who continue to show commitment to the COVID efforts, walking the hills and valleys to reach our most vulnerable citizens,” added Dr. Tufton.
The Ministry continues to encourage Jamaicans to get vaccinated to prevent serious illness, hospitalisation and/or death associated with COVID-19. There are currently two vaccines in country: the two-dose AstraZeneca and the single-dose Johnson and Johnson. Both vaccines provide protection against the deadly COVID-19.
Up to 2:00 p.m. today, the island had administered a total of 893,696 doses of vaccines. Of that number, 533,967 were first doses, 315,036 were second doses and 44,693 were single doses.