Jamaica to receive 1.4 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine till end of September

Dr Christopher Tufton, minister of health and wellness, noted that 1.4 million vaccine doses are expected to arrive on the island till the end of September. This shipment of vaccine doses would be including both double and single-dose vaccines.

Dr Christopher Tufton said that their target has been to deliver doses to 900,000 Jamaicans between 28th July and the end of September. It’s an ambitious target, but he believes that with the support of the population and all of society, they could achieve that target.

Dr Tufton was addressing a virtual press conference that was being hosted by Prime Minister Andrew Holness on Monday (July 26). While hosting, PM Holness said that as soon as new batches would be arriving of vaccines to Jamaica, the programme will be opened up to all Jamaicans who will qualify, aged 18 years and over.

PM Holness again highlighted that “they have been getting the shipment of 900,000, plus. Those who have already benefited, then they would be somewhere in the region of 50 per cent of the target, given that they have been looking at 1.95 million or so.

Till Sunday, a total of 302,856 doses of the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine have been used.

564 doses of the single-dose Johnson and Johnson vaccine have also been administered under special arrangements for the country’s athletes competing in the Olympics and the Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF) competition.

Few days back Prime Minister of Jamaica ordered to implement the strict COVID-19 restrictions on citizens to mitigate COVID-19 spread in the country. The decision has been taken after experiencing the rise in COVID-19 positive cases on the island, alarming the third wave in Jamaica.

An average of 135 cases are being reported daily in Jamaica. Whereas there have been 1,318 new COVID-19 cases recorded in the month of July

While addressing the whole nation, PM Holness said that after noticing a rapid rise in the COVID-19 cases in the country, now the government needs to act. Mainly on the decision that the face to face education would get resumed in school from September.