VACCINATION sites continue to be made available to make it easier for people to receive their shots. Photo: Racardo Thomas
By RASHAD ROLLE
Tribune Senior Reporter
rrolle@tribunemedia.net
HEALTH Minister Renward Wells said yesterday the Pfizer vaccine will “almost certainly” be available in the country this year.
He also revealed that the government has acquired isolation chambers that can transport obese people from the Family Islands to New Providence.
Mr Wells said officials expect to receive an additional 33,000 doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine from the Pan American Health Organisation this week to complete their acquisition of 100,800 doses which were purchased through the World Health Organisation’s COVAX Facility.
Health officials have nonetheless said they are looking to bring Pfizer vaccines in the country because these are the only vaccines currently approved for emergency use in children. More young people have been catching COVID-19 and becoming seriously ill during the third wave of the virus than during previous waves.
“(We are) waiting on Pfizer to come back with a cost,” Mr Wells told reporters before a Cabinet meeting yesterday. “As soon as they say what the cost is, the Bahamas government will seek to move in that direction. I would say once we have the information, I would seek to (ensure that) within weeks that it is actually in (the) country.”
Mr Wells said a cold storage facility capable of holding Pfizer vaccines will be up and running by the end of this week. He said the facility will be able to hold about 50,000 doses of Pfizer. An additional eight small freezers will be available at the end of the week as well which are capable of holding about 7000 doses, he said.
Mr Wells could not say if the government will accept China’s offer to provide the country with its Sinopharm vaccine, which recently received approval from the WHO for emergency use.
“The government has not yet made a decision on the Sinopharm vaccine,” he said. “It’s been EUL (emergency use listing) approved by the WHO, but we will be seeking to have further discussions with them and obviously with the healthcare team we will be able to make decisions as to what we will do.”
The issue of isolation (ISO) chambers to transport COVID-19 patients from Family Islands arose in April after a 74-year-old Bimini resident died when he was refused airlift because of his weight.
Princess Margaret Hospital Administrator Mary Lightbourne-Walker said at the time that people who exceed 270lbs cannot be carried using equipment that was available in the country.
Mr Wells said yesterday: “We’ve secured larger ISO chambers. As a matter of fact, on Monday we had an individual in Central Andros who was severely obese with COVID and we were able to use the larger pods and the help of the Defence Force to get that individual on the air ambulance and to be able to bring them into New Providence.
“We’ve addressed it but it’s a continuing process because we need to purchase additional pods, we need to get larger aircrafts. COVID has exposed a lot of the chinks in the armour that we had in the healthcare sector, and we’ve been seeking to repair those and to progressively move the healthcare sector forward so in the event that we are ever back in this place, we would be even more prepared to continue to save the lives of the Bahamian people.”
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Health recorded 18 new COVID-19 cases on Monday, bringing the nation’s total to 11,597. Thirteen of those new cases are in New Providence, while there is one each in Grand Bahama, Exuma and Inagua and two new cases in Andros.
The death toll from the virus is 226.
Comments
dwanderer 3 years, 6 months ago
Last week, Minister Wells specifically noted that 3% of our new Covid cases are in children ages 0 - 9. He also mentioned the intent to procure the Pfizer vaccine to combat increased cases of Covid infections among young people. The Pfizer vaccine has been approved by the FDA for children ages 12 and up. Therefore, the vaccine is still not a panacea for even the tiniest amongst us.
joeblow 3 years, 6 months ago
... the simple reality is that this country has done virtually no antibody testing and I had advocated for more of that from mid last year! If we had, we may have been able to make better decisions about the need for vaccination. It is even probable that those who were previously infected may not even need a 'vaccine'.
https://www.nih.gov/news-events/nih-res…
tribanon 3 years, 6 months ago
It's well known Renward Wells does not have too much upstairs. Therefore it was all too easy for Minnis to do a quick side step and turn Wells into the laughing stock of our nation as a clueless minister of health. To this day Wells probably doesn't even appreciate that his political career was quite literally thrown under the bus by Minnis. lol
Proguing 3 years, 6 months ago
Better late than never....
rodentos 3 years, 6 months ago
covid naturally fades or already faded away. Spanish flu lasted about 2 years and covid will be no exception. With or without vaccines. Now you do not really need any vaccine anymore.
proudloudandfnm 3 years, 6 months ago
How can you possibly be this ignorant????
tribanon 3 years, 6 months ago
If you ever want to see what real ignorance looks like, just look in the mirror. lol
proudloudandfnm 3 years, 6 months ago
Funny. Dumb people have no idea they're dumb... Tsk tsk tsk. You, my friend, are dumb. Bad. Like worse than trumpie dumb. Like a whole new kind of dumb. Need a new word to define your dumb...
tribanon 3 years, 6 months ago
ZZZZZzzzzzz......
WETHEPEOPLE 3 years, 6 months ago
If you still listenint to Renward then you just as foolish as he is. More of the fart vaccine Astra Zeneca, why cant we ever get any of the good drugs, i suppose our lives arent as important as the first world countries. He said that Phizer will be here, why couldnt we get the phizer from the onset.
proudloudandfnm 3 years, 6 months ago
Because the US would not release it globally until they vaccinated a large amount of their population...
WETHEPEOPLE 3 years, 6 months ago
But they are will to distribute their farm vaccine thats not even been approved for their own citizens. Think i will pass on Mr. Zeneca.
tribanon 3 years, 6 months ago
@proudloudandfnm could not care any less about what's put in that syringe.....all he knows is that we should all get jabbed no matter what we get jabbed with. Saline solution would probably work fine for all of us in satisfying his "everyone must get jabbed" goal. lol
Bobsyeruncle 3 years, 6 months ago
Probably better than that (almost certainly) Chinese sourced D3 & Zinc you take every day.
tribanon 3 years, 6 months ago
There isn't a single ingredient in either vitamin D3 or Zinc that must be sourced from Communist China and I can assure you I know exactly who makes and distributes my vitamins which are purchased in the US and never online via Amazon or from the likes of CVS, Walgreens, Walmart, etc. I appreciate you taking such great interest in my health. lol
proudloudandfnm 3 years, 6 months ago
You dumb trumpies just want this pandemic to last forever. Why is that? What? You too lazy to go find a job? You like being stuck at home every night? Why are you so willing to live like this indefinitely? You bitch and moan about vaccines, lockdowns, curfews, infection numbers, masks, social distancing but you aren't willing to do one thing to help us get out of this mess. Not one single thing. Are you just stupid? Or insane?
tribanon 3 years, 6 months ago
ZZZZZzzzzzzz........
proudloudandfnm 3 years, 6 months ago
Atrazeneca's vaccine is working, proof is the UK.
tribanon 3 years, 6 months ago
Those jabs you got seem to have done some harm to your gray matter.
TalRussell 3 years, 6 months ago
Comrades, and this much you know, I'm not one who wants to be posting conspiracy theories but the current holder of the realm's health portfolio, Renward, might brung about a sudden change to me posts, yes?
carltonr61 3 years, 6 months ago
https://sputniknews.com/world/202105261…
Wells is a good snake oil salesperson that would have survived well in the wild sold west rodeo corralling Bahamian cattle belonging to the queen to be vaccinated by order of Governer General and AG and Judas our leader. Pfizer kill more than your AZ. Just let us live bro.
carltonr61 3 years, 6 months ago
https://www.rt.com/usa/524611-cdc-covid…
CDC investigates why young healthy students develop heart failure from vaccines. Wells and this Constitutional Covid team trying to murder Bahamians.
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