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Dr. Corey Forde

More Pfizer vaccines coming in early November

Barbados will be getting the next tranche of Pfizer vaccines from the United States of America, early in November.

The announcement came from Prime Minister of Barbados, Mia Amor Mottley, during a COVID-19 update and press conference, which was convened yesterday.

After asking Barbadians to step up to the plate and meet the challenge given first by Infectious Disease Specialist, Dr. Corey Forde of being vaccinated by November 15th and expressing her own desire to achieve an additional 45 000 vaccinations in the next four to six weeks, Mottley then delivered the news.

“I am so happy. I would like formally to thank the Government of the United States of America and in particular President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris. I met with Vice President Harris just last week and in that period of time we indicated that we were about to run out of our first tranche, which we did, of Pfizer last week and we were indicating to them that we need to get the additional vaccines. If we know that they’re coming, then we are in a position to start offloading the other second doses that we have, confident in the knowledge that we are getting additional vaccines very shortly” Mottley remarked.

She added, “I am happy to report to the country that having met with Vice President Harris last week, that the United States government communicated with my Permanent Secretary, the national security advisor communicated with my permanent secretary Alies Jordan yesterday morning, and that the next tranche of vaccines will come the week of November 7.”

As such, Mottley noted that given this news, first doses of the Pfizer vaccine will continue to be administered once again, commencing tomorrow, because the country will now have enough, as the additional 70 000 vaccines are on their way.

In a release issued by the US Embassy here in Barbados, it was meanwhile noted that the White House notified CARICOM earlier this week that approximately 550 000 vaccine doses would be ready to ship in November to CARICOM countries and of those, Barbados is scheduled to receive its second shipment of 70 200 vaccine doses. The first donation by the US Government arrived August 13.

“We were encouraged by the positive response in Barbados, to the availability of the cutting-edge Pfizer vaccine,” said US Ambassador Linda Taglialatela.

“This announcement of the upcoming second tranche of donated doses reflects the continued commitment by the United States to increase vaccine supply and access to the Caribbean, completely free of charge and with no strings attached,” she added.

The release indicated that all the vaccines that the US Government donates are approved by the US Food and Drug Administration and the Pfizer vaccine is the only vaccine approved for use in children as young as 12 years old and is undergoing an approval process for use in children as young as five. (RSM)

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