‘120k must get vaccine for herd immunity’

Minister of Health Renward Wells said yesterday that 120,000 people would have to receive the COVID-19 vaccine for The Bahamas to reach herd immunity.

COVID-related restrictions have been imposed in The Bahamas since it reported its first COVID-19 case in March 2020.

When asked how many people would have to be vaccinated for The Bahamas to reopen, Wells replied, “Right now, we have a population of 382,000. I always round it up to about 400,000 persons. We have probably around 60,000 individuals who would have at least received their first dose and … I’m not exactly sure where we are in terms of those who would have received their second dose.”

He continued, “We have gone through the first and second wave of COVID. We would’ve had some 11,000 Bahamians who would’ve tested positive in addition to those who would’ve been vaccinated. You know, you have a large portion who would’ve been exposed to the virus, who was asymptomatic, who showed no signs, so they would’ve not been tested. I would say if we can vaccinate probably about 120,000 of our population, we would be in good stead.

“That’s my number. I’m not the health expert but just sitting down and talking to other health experts, the thinking is if we could get around 120,000 persons vaccinated, we would be in good stead as a nation.”

In March, Wells predicated that the country will reach herd immunity to COVID-19 by the summer. 

“Given the fact of the number of
Bahamians who have already been exposed to COVID, if you do the math, it says a lot of Bahamians have already been exposed based on the fact that we are around 8,700 positives, along with our vaccination program,” he said.

“I do believe that by the time we enter the summer that The Bahamas will have…reached our desired herd immunity, which means that the country will be able to move in a more positive direction.”

So far, however, the government has only secured enough vaccines to vaccinate 60,000 people.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), herd immunity “is the indirect protection from an infectious disease that happens when a population is immune either through vaccination or immunity developed through previous infection”.

The WHO notes that it is difficult to know how much of the population must be vaccinated to reach herd immunity to COVID-19.

However, earlier in the pandemic, experts estimated that roughly 70 percent of the population would have to be immune to COVID to reach herd immunity.

Others say the threshold could be higher than that.

As of May 29, more than 55,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine have been administered in The Bahamas.

More than 8,000-second doses had already been administered. 

The National COVID-19 Consultative Committee said last month that unemployed or retired individuals accounted for the majority of those vaccinated. However, it did not provide a figure.

Other professionals — such as bankers, engineers, educators and clergy — accounted for 7,855 of the vaccinated population.

Individuals 60 and older accounted for 7,653 of the vaccinated population; hospitality industry workers accounted for 5,076; healthcare workers accounted for 3,776; domestic helpers, construction workers and tradesmen accounted for 2,978; and members of the uniformed branches — police, defense force, customs, etc. — accounted for 1,724.

Individuals working in retail and manufacturing accounted for 1,641 of the vaccinated population; students accounted for 1,072; employees in non-hospitality food services and sales accounted for 1,047; home care providers accounted for 885; communications workers accounted for 576; non-hospitality transportation workers accounted for 425; and agriculture and fisheries workers accounted for 223.

Four thousand, one hundred and thirty-three individuals vaccinated were listed in the “none of the above” category.

The Bahamas has received 87,200 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine since March.

Twenty thousand of those doses were donated by the Indian government before the start of its current coronavirus wave. The remaining doses were secured through the COVAX Facility.

The Bahamas is expected to receive another 33,600 doses, through COVAX, this month.

But the country will only have received a total of 120,000 doses by the time it gets its full commitment of vaccines.

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source https://thenassauguardian.com/120k-must-get-vaccine-for-herd-immunity/