The Ministry of Health says that it has seen a significant increase over the past few days, in the number of persons coming out to receive their first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.
This was disclosed by the health minister, Dr Frank Anthony who stated yesterday that this uptake has been seen in all regions. “I must say over the last two days we have seen an uptick in first dose vaccination and that’s a positive thing and in all the regions we’re seeing that.”
He noted that as of Wednesday, a total of 257,384 persons have so far received their first dose of a vaccine, accounting for 52.9% of the country’s adult population, while 142,691 persons have received both doses, which means that some 29.3% of persons, 18 and over, have been fully inoculated.
Anthony informed that Region One has the highest first-dose vaccination percentage as 67.4% of its population has received shots. On the opposite end in Region Ten, only 17.1% of its population has received a first dose. As it relates to second-dose coverage, Region Four is currently in the lead with 32.7% being fully vaccinated and Region Ten again with the lowest at 9.1%.
Further, the minister pointed out that authorities are now doing in-depth analyses to be able to tailor the vaccination
programmes to suit the different regions and villages. “We have in some instances done studies within those particular communities to understand what are the myths circulating why it is that they’re hesitant about taking the vaccine and then try to customize an approach on how to get people to take the vaccine.”
This he indicated, is a lot of work as they try to figure out and design a new approach to then see how persons within those areas can be encouraged to take their vaccines. He also mentioned that the authorities are currently working on a programme which they hope to roll out in Region One soon.
“We have a programme that we’re working on right now, which we’re hoping to start rolling out in Region One with those villages that have been more hesitant than others and then we will do subsequent rollouts in those other areas, so we are moving from this broad approach to very specific targeted kinds of approach,” Anthony explained.
