Wells: No need to panic over vaccine shortage

Minister of Health Renward Wells yesterday advised Bahamians not to panic over the limited supply of COVID-19 vaccines in country, and said the government is having discussions about securing additional doses.

“The Bahamian public don’t have to panic,” Wells said.

“As I said, this administration, from the beginning, we have decided that whatever it is that we are going to do, within the confines of health and safety rules, to continue to vaccinate our people that we’re going to do.

“It really speaks to the fact that Bahamians are now stepping forward in a major way to be vaccinated that we’re actually at the point that we’re at in looking to source vaccines from elsewhere.

“We’re also very close on two different tracks to receiving Pfizer; one through CARPHA (Caribbean Public Health Agency), the Caribbean region, because the prime minister and his other Caribbean colleagues have been in direct negotiations with the United States and the US will be donating vaccines to the region through CARICOM and we’re looking forward to those being from Pfizer.”

Wells was unable to indicate how many doses The Bahamas is expected to receive from the United States.

The government is waiting for a definitive date for the arrival of the vaccine but it is expected by mid-July, according to Wells.

He said The Bahamas has the capacity to hold at least 100,000 doses of Pfizer.

“We’re looking to increase that amount very, very soon over the next 10 days,” Wells said.

“We will be receiving the storage facility that can hold up to 300,000 doses.”

The Bahamas has received 92,200 doses of AstraZeneca — 20,000 of those doses were donated by the Indian government, 5,000 borrowed from Antigua and Barbuda and the remaining were secured through the COVAX Facility.

Another 33,600 doses of AstraZeneca are expected to arrive on July 26, according to the prime minister.

 Wells said yesterday the government is also seeking to borrow additional doses from another Caribbean country.

“There is a discussion for the 20,000 from St. Vincent and then once we have received our tranche, we would return those doses to the various Caribbean countries, which we would’ve gotten some [from],” Wells said.

The National COVID-19 Vaccine Consultative Committee said vaccines will only be administered at Loyola Hall on New Providence and at  Susan J. Wallace Community Centre on Grand Bahama, up until tomorrow.

Wells said The Bahamas is not going to stop its vaccination program, which started in March.

“…Whatever is necessary for us to do, within the confines of the health environment globally, The Bahamas is continuing to do, which means Caribbean countries are cooperating together,” he said.

“So, where there is a nation with increased uptake of vaccines and a country where there is available vaccines that are not being readily used, there [are] discussions as to how you can move it across borders according to WHO (World Health Organization) rules.”

As of July 2, 95,992 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine have been administered in The Bahamas, the committee said, although it is unclear why that number is greater than the number of total doses it said arrived in country.

Fifty-nine thousand, seven hundred and thirty-one people have received at least one dose of the vaccine. A total of 36,261 people have been fully vaccinated with two doses of the vaccine, the committee said.

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