Africa gifts 75,000 doses of vaccines to Jamaica

3 years ago

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Jamaica received another 75,000 doses of vaccines, which was garnered through the Government of South Africa and the Africa Medical Supplies Platform (AMSP).

The shipment arrived at the Norman Manley International Airport (NMIA) Thursday afternoon on a chartered flight from Ghana.

Minister of Health and Wellness, Dr Christopher Tufton said the vaccines would be used this upcoming weekend in the first vaccination national blitz across the island.

The government has had a one-site blitz at the National Arena over the past two weekends, which Tufton said has enabled the island’s health authorities to learn.

“We think we are now in a position to have a national roll-out, which will mean every parish. In some instances multiple locations in parishes and we are targeting probably 50,000 or so persons over a three to four-day period,” Tufton said.

This is the third shipment of vaccines that Jamaica has gotten. The government got 50,000 doses from the Government of India and another 14,400 doses through the COVAX facility. Both shipments were done in March.

Those vaccines enabled the government to start the vaccination programme, which has so far seen thousands of Jamaicans being vaccinated against the coronavirus (COVID-19