It has emerged that there are some pockets of COVID vaccine resistance from within the over-60s age group and the government is now appealing to the churches to assist in getting them converted to the campaign.
According to Premier Alden McLaughlin, the Chief Medical Officer, Dr John Lee has been explaining the science of the vaccine to the clergy “in the hope that it helps to break down some of the obstacles and some of the resistance by some people within churches to taking vaccines.”
“Some people are still requiring convincing,” the Premier said, “but what I am getting anecdotally is that the more people that are vaccinated, the more people that can that can give a testimonial about it to the others, the more likely it is I believe that people are going to come on board.”
He said the CMO has been in contact with church leaders including The Seventh-Day Adventist conference and the Cayman Ministers Association, “because the church plays a huge role in this community.”
Dr Lee has been explaining the science of the vaccine to the clergy “in the hope that it helps to break down some of the obstacles and some of the resistance by some people within churches to taking vaccines.”
The CMO has reported that he was quite pleased with the pace of the overall vaccination programme.
“So far there have been 11,856 jabs given across the Cayman Islands, which is a phenomenal amount. Of those, there are 3939 which are people who've had their second doses.”
In all, 12.2 percent of the overall population overall has received at least one dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.
Regarding the crucial 60-plus age group, Dr Lee commented: “It's really encouraging to hear that 65% of our over 70s have received the first injections and 55% of our over-60s. Those are very encouraging figures.”
HE Governor Martyn Roper echoed the importance of reaching the critical 90 per cent threshold of persons in that age group coming forward to receive their vaccines.
“As Premier and Dr Lee set out, we need 90% of the over 60s to be vaccinated before we look at opening the islands up any further.”
Speaking to the wider community he added: “We are making good progress towards that target but everyone needs to play their role. It’s vitally important that you take your vaccine when offered. As much as the protection for you individually, taking a vaccine is for our community, particularly to protect our elderly and vulnerable.”
He again urged the public to rely only on accurate information about the vaccines.
Comments (0)
We appreciate your feedback. You can comment here with your pseudonym or real name. You can leave a comment with or without entering an email address. All comments will be reviewed before they are published.