Jamaica has administered more than half a million doses of COVID-19 vaccines, as the island continues efforts to vaccinate 65 percent of the population against the deadly disease by March 2022.
The country hit 500,605 COVID-19 vaccinations as of 4:00 PM on August 26, according to the Ministry of Health and Wellness. Of that number, some 359,675 were first doses and 139,242 were second doses. The remainder were single doses.
Since COVID-19 vaccinations began in March this year, the island has received more than a million doses of vaccines, including from the African Medical Supply Platform, the COVAX Facility, Canada, India, Mexico, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The vaccines are AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson and Pfizer.
“In the last four weeks alone, we received more than 820,000 of those doses. This is in keeping with the inflows we had predicted, with more to come,” noted Minister of Health and Wellness, Dr. the Hon. Christopher Tufton.
“The vaccines are here. What we need to do is to make good use of them. I am encouraged by the uptake over the last week and urge those who have not yet been vaccinated to make every effort to do so,” the Minister added.
Also on August 26, Jamaica received over 200,000 doses of AstraZeneca vaccines from the government of Canada.
“#GetVaccinated. A donation of 200,000 COVID-19 vaccines manufactured by AstraZeneca has arrived in the island. This is a gift from the Govt of Canada,” the ministry said in a tweet.
The Ministry’s goal is to vaccinate 700,000 Jamaicans by the end of September.
