St James second Covid-19 vaccination blitz later on this month will focus on tourism workers

St James' second Covid-19 vaccination blitz later this month will focus on tourism workers

By Hanan Redwan Published on June 07, 2021

Tourism workers have been deemed a crucial group for returning the once-buoyant hospitality sector that collapsed in 2020 because of coronavirus travel restrictions.

Lennox Wallace, parish manager for the St James Health Department, believes that the parish will surpass the vaccination numbers recorded during the previous blitz in April.

“We have a similar target to vaccinate 1,000 persons, which we had even exceeded at that time [in the previous blitz]. We made plans on Friday, my medical team and myself, to engage more of the tourist workers, who we want to ensure are fully vaccinated,” Wallace said on Sunday of the health department’s second-dose immunisation drive.

Wallace wants to boost the immunity of tourism workers as Jamaicans and foreigners flock to beaches and hospitality venues for the summer, especially with the ban on public beaches and rivers now lifted.

He was referencing Prime Minister Andrew Holness’ announcement on June 1 that public beaches and rivers will be allowed to operate for swimming, bathing, and exercising, a move that has found favour with tourism interests.

The relaxation of measures, which restrict public gatherings at beaches to groups of no more than 10 persons in any one area, took effect on June 3 and will expire on June 30.

Wallace said that he was optimistic that the St James Health Department’s continued education campaign would reassure the general public about the safety of the COVID-19 vaccine.

Jamaica has received supplies of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, which has suffered roller-coaster public confidence globally because of caution against dispensation to the elderly as well as dozens of blood clot cases. After inoculation was paused in some countries, those fears eased somewhat as the vaccine got the green light from the European medicine regulator.

“You have anti-vaxxers, and you have persons who have not made up their minds about the vaccine up to now, but I am sure that come Monday, those persons will come on board.

“... For shut-ins who cannot come to the vaccination sites, we use our mobile units to go to them.”

Wallace said that outreach teams visited Cornwall Courts last Tuesday and are due to tour Pitfour today.

On April 10, during the Ministry of Health’s previous weekend blitz at the Montego Bay Convention Centre in St James, more than 1,000 tourism workers received their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.

The next blitz is scheduled to take place at the same venue from June 19-21.

Hanan Redwan

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St James' second Covid-19 vaccination blitz later this month will focus on tourism workers

Hanan Redwan

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