PM Praises Healthcare Workers While Encouraging Vaccination

Prime Minister the Most Hon. Andrew Holness has lauded healthcare workers for efforts to ensure safety of the public during the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

Speaking with a group of healthcare professionals at the James Hill Health Centre in Clarendon on Thursday (October 21), the Prime Minister said he is aware of the long hours they work as the country battles the virus, and urged them to make their own safety a priority by being vaccinated.

“I urge you, being on the frontline, being almost directly exposed at great risks to yourself, that you consider getting vaccinated,” the PM said, adding that while they have concerns about the medicine, his duty is to encourage them to do what is best for their health.

Noting that as health professionals, they have a duty to be “examples,” Mr. Holness stressed that they must be in a position to be able to “fully carryout your duty,” and being exposed to the virus, “you should take all the precautions to ensure that your function can be carried out, and the best protection is for you to become vaccinated,” he said.

The PM further added that with over two billion people taking the vaccines, no calamity has occurred, and “I know that you recognised that those things are ridiculous,” he said, pointing out that the over $10 billion that the government had to “carve out” from the Supplementary Budget to add to resources for the COVID-19 crisis, could have gone to other sectors of the society.

“I have confidence in the global system of ensuring the protection of citizens who have taken these medicines, so governments are not going to be careless about the protection of their citizens. I am satisfied that a robust system of testing is available to ensure safety of the vaccines,” the PM said.

He also called on the workers to examine the risks of not taking the vaccines and the risks of contracting the virus, including the social and economic costs of becoming ill. PM Holness declared that the risks of not taking the vaccines is a threat to wellbeing, and persons should be vaccinated to avoid being ravaged by COVID-19.