Health Minister reiterates need for vaccination, adherence to COVID-19 measures as over 1100 new infections recorded

Health Minister, Dr. Frank Anthony has declared the importance of full vaccination and
adherence to the COVID-19 measures and guidelines. He made this appeal as health ministry
recorded some 1, 186 new COVID-19 infections within the last 24- hours,
During Thursday’s COVID-19 update, Dr. Anthony, noted that unvaccinated persons, with
comorbidities are at a higher risk of being hospitalised and as such, he urged persons to get
vaccinated against the disease. “We are getting far less hospitalisation now, but if you’re
unvaccinated and you have comorbidities, then you’ll be at a higher risk of getting hospitalised if
you get COVID,” Minister Anthony said.
He continued, “So, again I would like to urge persons who have not been vaccinated as yet to
make sure that they go out and get vaccinated. We have vaccines available at all our vaccination
sites, so it’s not a difficult thing to get.”  The health minister stressed that all workplaces need to
put rules in place to ensure a safer environment for their employees.
Dr. Anthony noted that those rules should include wearing a mask consistently, indoor work
spaces need to be properly ventilated, employees need to maintain social distancing and they
should get vaccinated. “In many instances, people are not complying with these simple measures
and therefore, we have to monitor for more compliance. I think that if workplaces do that, both
public and private, then we would see a drop in cases,” hre explained.
The minister pointed out that in terms of testing for the Omicron variant, he said samples have
already been selected and shipping arrangements are being sorted. “We have selected the
samples, we’re now at the process where the agencies are making the arrangements for the
shipping, so as soon as those arrangements are concluded, we will be able to send the samples,”
he said.
Minister Anthony noted that in terms of vaccination 416, 353 of the country’s adult population
took the first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine while 302, 704 persons have been fully vaccinated.
He added that within the 12 to 17 age cohort 31, 437 children received the first dose of the US-
made Pfizer vaccine while 22, 259 took both doses.