Madam Speaker, I rise to update this honourable house and the people of Jamaica on the National COVID-19 Deployment and Vaccination Interim Plan.
The Cabinet has approved a National COVID-19 Deployment and Vaccination Interim Plan as the strategy and authority on the deployment of COVID-19 Vaccine(s) in Jamaica. The Plan outlines the overall strategies for the deployment, implementation and monitoring of the COVID-19 vaccine(s) in country. The Plan is developed in a way that ensures alignment and integration with the national COVID-19 Response and Recovery programme.
Madam Speaker, the question may be asked why an interim plan? The COVID-19 pandemic is a very dynamic and fluid situation with continuous learning and new information being brought forth as to the clinical and epidemiological features of the virus and its transmission. Additionally, on the matter of the development of COVID-19 vaccines, there is still some uncertainty in this area, such as the type and quantity of vaccine(s) which may become available to Jamaica. Accordingly, this Plan is developed based on information which is currently available and the assumptions the Government is able to make based on these currently available information. There will be future updates to the Plan as new information becomes available.
VACCINE DEVELOPMENT PROCESS AND STATUS OF VACCINES UNDER DEVELOPMENT
Madam Speaker before going into the details of the National COVID-19 Deployment and Vaccination Interim Plan, I wish to remind the honourable house on the Vaccine Development Process and the status of vaccines under development globally.
Madam Speaker, in order to ensure that the new vaccines being developed to combat the COVID-19 Virus are safe and effective, the vaccine development process, as prescribed by the WHO, involved:
- Preclinical Testing: Each vaccine under development must first undergo screenings and evaluations to determine which antigen should be used to invoke an immune response. This preclinical phase is done without testing on
- Phase 1 Safety Trials: Scientists give the vaccine to a small number of people to test safety and dosage, as well as to confirm that it stimulates an immune
- Phase 2 Expanded Trials: Scientists give the vaccine to hundreds of people split into groups, such as children and the elderly, to see if the vaccine acts differently in them. These trials further test the vaccine’s safety and ability to generate an immune response.
- Phase 3 Efficacy Trials: Scientists give the vaccine to thousands of people and wait to see how many become infected, compared with volunteers who received a
- Approval: Regulators review the complete trial results and plans for a vaccine’s manufacturing, and decide whether to give it full A vaccine must be proven to be safe and effective across a broad population before it will be approved and introduced into a national immunization programme. The bar for vaccine safety and efficacy is extremely high, recognizing that vaccines are given to people who are otherwise healthy and specifically free from the illness.
