Jamaica is set to receive a shipment of 55,000 doses of vaccine shortly under the COVID-19 Vaccine Global Access (COVAX) facility.

The arrival of the shipment will facilitate the continuation of the islandwide vaccination blitz events to help in the fight against the virus.

Minister of Health and Wellness, Dr Christopher Tufton, disclosed during the weekly COVID Conversations virtual press conference on April 14.

“We do have some limited stocks now, and so come Monday (April 19), we will [continue] the process to inoculate others, but it will be the regular phase-one-phase-two process, with the blitz to come later on.

“The next blitz would have to be influenced by another shipment, which we anticipate we will get in a week under the COVAX programme, which we had earlier announced – some 55,000 doses to come in,”

he said.

The blitz events aim to get as many Jamaicans as possible inoculated with the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.

Jamaica is among at least seven countries that are slated to receive nearly 2.3 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines through COVAX.

The facility is designed to accelerate equitable access by countries globally to appropriate, safe and efficacious vaccines.

Jamaica received its first shipment of vaccines procured through COVAX in March.