The Tribune

By LEANDRA ROLLE

Tribune Staff Reporter

lrolle@tribunemedia.net

WITH demand for COVID-19 vaccinations continuing to climb, National COVID-19 Vaccine Consultative Committee Chairperson Dr Merceline Dahl-Regis said officials are now facing the challenge of meeting it as she appealed for more Bahamians to volunteer to assist with the country’s vaccination programme.

Dr Dahl-Regis spoke to reporters at the Kendal G L Isaacs Gymnasium yesterday as hundreds flocked to the newly opened vaccination site to receive their first dose of the Pfizer vaccine.

Last week, The Bahamas received its first batch of the Pfizer vaccine from the United States’ government, boosting the nation’s current supply to help defeat the third wave of the pandemic.

According to committee member Barry Rassin, over 400 people were expected to receive their first Pfizer doses yesterday, with more expected to be vaccinated in the days ahead.

However, it is not clear how much of that figure comprised children, as youngsters aged 12 and older are now permitted to take the Pfizer shots once approved by parents.

“Today, we have 484 confirmed appointments,” he said. “Tomorrow (Friday) we have 704 so we always like to start the first day a little slower so we make sure everything is organised and everybody could be processed efficiently, but tomorrow we ramp up to 704 and continue forward like that.”

The public roll-out of the Pfizer jab comes after officials conducted a pilot phase on Monday.

Around 150 people received Pfizer shots in the pilot phase, 45 of whom were children.

Yesterday, Dr Dahl-Regis said the number of people who participated in the pilot phase was higher than expected. She said officials were able to learn several lessons from Monday’s exercise.

“We learnt that you need a very tight appointment system, and you need number assignments because there is a thirst for the Pfizer vaccine,” she said.

“Secondly, we saw groups of individuals and children with large families and so we hope to change our physical set up because it takes longer to do families than it does for individuals, recognising that some people have to return to work. So what you see this morning is we’re trying very hard to keep an appointment system although there are walk-ins and exceptions."

Dr Dahl-Regis also said there is a need for more manpower to help with the booking of vaccine appointments.

“We hope to have volunteers from all agencies come and assist us because we do need more people to help others make their appointments and that’s where we were short today,” she said. “We don’t have the personnel to say you walk up, let me make an appointment before you leave. Right now, we are really compromised in that domain.”

Dr Dahl-Regis said all appointments for the Pfizer vaccine this week have been booked out.

She noted a team will be in Grand Bahama today to work on vaccine logistics ahead of the vaccine’s arrival, and also to locate another vaccination site on the island.

As it relates to when vaccinations will resume on the Family Islands, Dr Dahl-Regis said the committee is still working to finalise those plans.

Dr Dahl-Regis said there has been high interest in vaccinations for some islands like Abaco, but stressed that having to constantly dispatch COVID-19 vaccines to the Family Islands is proving to be difficult.

“We also have a great demand for Abaco and we are meeting this afternoon at 2 o’clock to see how we are going to accommodate all the needs and the demand for the vaccines,” she said.

“We had a supply problem before but now we have a demand (issue). We have to figure out how we’re going to (accommodate) demand because we really want as many people to have the vaccine quickly and we need more resources to do it.

“So, the advance team goes down on Friday and…so we hope the transfer of knowledge will run smoothly so that when we start in Grand Bahama on Saturday and Sunday that we won’t have to spend a day of training,” Dr Dahl-Regis added.

She said officials are trying to avoid having to re-vaccinate people with another first shot due to the fact that they weren't able to get their second shots in the recommended time frame.

When The Tribune visited the gymnasium, many Bahamians said concern about contracting the virus was among the reasons they showed up.

Others said their preference for Pfizer as opposed to the AstraZeneca shot helped influence their decision to finally get vaccinated.

“There are a huge number of persons who I’ve spoken to in the community who had a little scepticism about the AstraZeneca vaccine and, of course, I don’t know if social media added to that, but, of course, persons were waiting to get the Pfizer vaccine like myself and we’re more comfortable,” said Lindbergh Smith.

For 12-year-old Vikita Richardson, it was about keeping herself safe.

“I wanted to keep myself safe today from the COVID-19 and I wanted to make sure that if I do get the COVID-19 vaccine that I don’t get the worse side of it and I won’t die and all of those things,” she said.

The seventh-grade student was accompanied by her mother, Amy Rahming who had already been vaccinated. Many young children were seen lined up at the site with their parents.

Ms Rahming said she feels more at ease about her daughter’s safety, especially with the new school year approaching, noting that masks “are simply not enough”.

“The risk (of the vaccine) pales in comparison to the benefits,” she said.

The young mother also gave this message for parents who may be hesitant in allowing their children to get vaccinated.

“I would say do your research,” she said. “Speak to your child’s paediatrician or general practitioner and ask as many questions as you possibly can, the research and the information is there online. Credible sources are online. Do your research and if you have to pray about it, pray about it.”

Some people said there were some kinks in the vaccination system that still needed to be ironed out.

“There were three young ladies that were here very early and they were told that if they didn’t have an appointment that they couldn’t be served and they left and they are very frustrated over the process so I’m hoping that they can iron out a lot of administrative issues and the bureaucracy that’s related to vaccine,” one man said.

“No one should leave here unvaccinated. If a person shows up here, they ought to be vaccinated. It shouldn’t matter if they have an appointment or not.”

The National COVID-19 Vaccine Consultative Committee is seeking to fully vaccinate 60,000 people over the next six weeks.

At last report 51,150 people have been fully vaccinated in the country while 68,323 have received one dose.