PM Urges Parents to Get Children Vaccinated

Prime Minister, the Most Hon. Andrew Holness, is renewing the call for parents and guardians of children 12 years and older, to take them to receive the coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccine.

“There is one vaccine, so far, that has been approved for children 12 to 18 years old and that’s the Pfizer vaccine. We encourage parents to allow their children, to give approval for their children, to take the vaccine,” Mr. Holness said.

He was speaking to journalists during a tour of a vaccination site at the Manning’s School in Savanna-la-Mar, Westmoreland, on Thursday (November 18).

The Prime Minister also appealled for Jamaicans to take any of the three vaccines that are available to them at vaccination sites across the island.

Mr. Holness said that all the vaccines approved by the World Health Organization (WHO) are “safe and effective” and persons should no longer be apprehensive about getting inoculated.

“Delay could mean danger and I would encourage those who are waiting to stop the procrastination. We have been vaccinating on a wide-scale basis since August [and] we are closing out the year now. The world has been vaccinating. I think if you are waiting to see, then you would have already seen,” he pointed out.

He said that getting the jab means protection against COVID-19.

“This is the way for us to return to normalcy,” the Prime Minister added.

For her part, Medical Officer of Health for Westmoreland, Dr. Marcia Graham, noted that parents in Westmoreland are becoming increasingly receptive to their children taking the Pfizer vaccine.

She said that more parents and their children are turning up at vaccinations sites on weekends to participate in the national vaccination programme.

She noted that the health team also goes out into the communities.

“We do some community outreach, as we were in Beeston Spring earlier this week; we were in Ashton last week, and we are also going into Jerusalem Mountain. So, we are going out into other areas,” Dr. Graham said.