The British Virgin Islands recently received approximately 6700 COVID-19 vaccines from the United Kingdom Government, which consisted of the Pfizer and AstraZeneca versions of the vaccine.
This was confirmed during a media conference which was held on Thursday December 16, where Minister for Health Carvin Malone revealed that the territory received some 4680 Pfizer vaccines and 2000 of the AstraZeneca version.
Malone said by having the capacity to now store and administer the Pfizer type of the COVID-19 vaccine, it provides the BVI with an extra layer of resources needed to effectively combat the COVID-19 virus.
He said, “Finally, after months of planning and putting systems in place we now have the capacity to house the Pfizer vaccine. Thanks to the United Kingdom we received 4680 doses of Pfizer and 2000 doses of AstraZeneca to strengthen our immunization programme. This is a very pivotal moment for us in this fight against COVID-19 because now we get to add another layer to our resources. We are now in a position to offer boosters and third doses of AstraZeneca vaccine.”
Children under 18 no longer have to travel for Pfizer vaccine
Minister Malone also said that by having the Pfizer vaccine, it will help to target critical categories of the population such as children under 18 years of age that previously had to travel in the neighbouring United States Virgin Islands to gain access to this version of the vaccine.
“It pleases my heart to know that we are now in a position to continue to arm our community with the necessary tools to aid them in this long battle of COVID-19, including that critical age of adolescents and teenagers who have not been able to access the vaccines throughout, who’ve only been able to access the vaccine with the US-BVI that was put in place. I encourage everyone to take advantage of this opportunity that many of our Caribbean brothers and sisters, they do not have such opportunities,” he explained.
Rollout phases explained
Meanwhile, Acting Chief Medical Officer Dr. Ronald Georges said that the administering of the vaccines will be completed along phases, which consist of various priority groups,”
He said these priority groups include the elderly with persons over 65-years-of-age, children between the ages of 12 to 18, persons who are immunocompromised, healthcare workers and frontline workers.
“From the 17th we’re hoping to have healthcare workers begin to get their vaccination. So those will be healthcare workers both in the public and private sector and the BVI Health Services Authority will contact the workers directly and organize for them to begin their vaccinations at the HSA. Phase two which we hope to start next week around the 20th of December will include our frontline workers. Those of those are the same groups that we had under AstraZeneca so those would be police officers, firemen, immigration, and customs officers, the officers at the ports – at the Airports Authority and the BVI seaports. Also, the VISAR, the Virgin Island Search and Rescue will also be included in that group and they will begin to have their vaccinations as early as next week.” Dr. Georges explained.
He added, “During the course of next week as well we will be vaccinating residents of the Adina Donovan Home, the Virgin Gorda elderly home and dialysis patients will also be scheduled to have their vaccinations. The physicians will also be identifying patients, who are immunocompromised and beginning to offer them vaccines. We’re hoping later next week to bring the private sector on board. So we’ll be conducting some additional training with them this week into next week to begin having them have the Pfizer vaccine available in their practices. So that’ll hopefully come late next week.”
Dr. Georges said that the Pfizer vaccine will be made available to all residents by the beginning of January 2022, depending on the uptake of the vaccines in stock.