ACTING Chief Medical Officer Dr Phillip Swann. (Photo: Austin Fernander)
By LEANDRA ROLLE
Tribune Staff Reporter
lrolle@tribunemedia.net
ACTING Chief Medical Officer Dr Phillip Swann said officials are making final arrangements to facilitate the administration of paediatric vaccines in schools to help increase vaccinations among children.
Dr Swann said parents will be able to receive their vaccination consent letters in the next two weeks.
“So, once we have an indication from the children or parents of children at school that they want their children to receive the vaccine, then we will put a schedule together and send a team to vaccinate those children whose parents have requested that they receive the vaccine in school and I think the measure or the mandate is requesting that the guardian or parent be present during that time,” he said during a press briefing at the Office of the Prime Minister yesterday.
Currently, children aged five to 11, are eligible to receive the paediatric Pfizer vaccines in the country.
In a recent interview with The Tribune, Health and Wellness Minister Dr Michael Darville said there were about 700 doses that had been administered to children at last report. He also admitted that vaccination rates among the group have not been going as well as officials had anticipated.
Yesterday, Dr Swann said while the uptake among children was still being determined, there was an overall concern about the slow vaccination pace in the country.
“We do remain concerned about the rate of vaccination and the fact that week over week, the numbers of newly vaccinated individuals are trending between 150 to 200 over the past two reporting periods and fully vaccinated increasing by an hour to 250 persons each week during the same period,” he added.
“Paediatric vaccines remain available and although the uptake is still being weighed as to the success in the past five weeks, final arrangements are being made to facilitate the delivery of vaccines in school settings and we hope to have letters to parents and guardians to grant consent within the next two weeks.
“The public is reminded that although the numbers of reported cases are not alarming, we are still in a declared pandemic and persons are still contracting COVID-19 infection and in some cases still dying from it – so we encourage you to get vaccinated.”
The push for vaccinations comes as the country moves away from such COVID-19 restrictions as mask wearing among other measures.
Yesterday, Dr Swann addressed health officials’ decision to recommend further relaxations to the country’s mask mandates, saying the rationale behind the move was generally based on the need for residents to exercise personal responsibility.
He also said adherence to the mask mandates was “less than acceptable,” something he suggested was discussed in the health advisory committee’s meetings when reviewing the protocol.
“Despite this, however, we know there has been no increase in cases of COVID-19 recorded and hospitalisations also remained low and vaccination campaigns have not had the expected results despite the funds expended to research on human behaviour undertaken and the various approaches to increase uptake,” he also said.
“Whereby as a result of the foregoing, the determination was taken to relax the wearing of masks in some settings with the understanding that if there is a need to reinstitute the measure the recommendations to do so will return.”
The acting CMO also explained why officials recommended that masks still be worn in healthcare facilities, senior care homes and classroom settings.
“In healthcare facilities, health care workers and system users are to maintain the use of masks at all times to ensure that the vulnerable are protected. This has been the case in most healthcare settings prior to COVID and persons with a cough when provided with a mask or isolated from other persons and spaces in a clinic setting or health setting,” Dr Swann said.
“In education institutions, the mask mandate for school or education institutions was also retained for in class settings and these are some of the reasons why we maintained that posture.
“There were reports of increased cases of influenza-like illnesses and not determined to be COVID- 19 in one or two schools that required the need for additional action of caution. There are no other settings where individuals are in such close proximity to multiple fixed periods of time, 60 or 90 minutes a day in closed settings.
“The vaccination levels among school aged children are among the lowest. I wouldn’t even say sub optimal.
“They’re just the lowest and the same can be said to some extent to groups that work with them and there are some challenges with parents adhering to protocols of taking children for testing when they presented symptoms of an influenza-like illness.”
In respect to mask wearing in long-term residential facilities, Dr Swann said recommendations were made for workers to still abide by the protocol because “most of the residents in those facilities are immune compromised, and some of them do not actually (or) are not able to wear the masks.”
Asked yesterday about penalties for non-compliant people and how they will be policed, the acting CMO replied: “We have I think, for the most part, have not everywhere removed or recommended the removal of any fines associated with the non-wearing of masks and you would imagine that if you go to a healthcare facility, then you won’t be able to get inside unless you have a mask on.
“And in school settings, of course, it’s expected to be policed by the school system – again, it’s about your safety or the safety of those you who walk in contact with.”
Comments
carltonr61 1 year, 7 months ago
Diabolical insanity by our doctors upon our civilization. It's about lose of money and not the health of our children. Thus vaccine dictatorship is criminal as global doctors have locked horns with vaccines for profit doctors verses the fact that children are 109% the least to be infected by covid. Thus global medical dictatorship started by gates has already been called unworkable by him as the virus changes each five months. Vaccine investment went down significantly after the CEO of the major branded money maker after four vaccinations of his brand caught covid twice in six weeks. This slowing of vaccine while covid is at its lowest is a natural global occurrence. Those Delta cibid varient vaccines have already been replaced by binary omicron/delta that has also been deemed unsafe by USA doctors because they are untested on humans. Research doctors here if they were following global best practices would have read the data on child fsikd and damaged hearts after vaccinations around the globe. Our research doctors here must be from the cesspool of medical school not to have drawn conclusions from Israel , USA, Europe Russia and Canada.
bcitizen 1 year, 7 months ago
Criminal
JokeyJack 1 year, 7 months ago
I found a needle on the ground the other day, and so I injected it into my child. I don't know what was in it - but it was a medical syringe so it must be a good thing. Nothing bad happened right away - I guess time will tell. Hopefully it will protect my child from something, or heal them from something I don't even know they have. I'm sure it will turn out for the best. I just feel sorry for the person who lost it.
carltonr61 1 year, 7 months ago
https://www.theepochtimes.com/doctor-...">https://www.theepochtimes.com/doctor-...
tom1912 1 year, 7 months ago
The Bahamas should be careful on this matter, as over here in the UK 🇬🇧, there is lot of evidence coming out about vaccinating children and young adults causing health problems some not coming out until maybe years later, myocarditis being one, there has been a lot of concern of sudden death syndrome in 45 year olds and younger in the vaccinated recently although not proven there is a connection. What has occurred is that there have been more excess deaths in the last few months not attributed to covid in numbers greater than during the so called pandemic. So as those who seemed to know what they were taking about in the last 2/3 years were right the biggest killer was the lock downs not the virus!
It would appear that that the Danish and the Norweigens are not allowing any covid vaccinations for anyone under the age of 50.
So far the U.K. government has paid out to 15,000 citizens or their families compensation up to £100,000 for injury (e.g amputations) or death as a result of the effects of being vaccinated for covid, there are more in the pipeline due to the UK government dragging its feet,
Notwithstanding that Omercron has changed the picture greatly i.e it's not much worse than a heavy cold, initially the data [Ignored by the U.K. Government) over here was that only those over 70 were badly affected by covid along with those with comobities! Apart from in Sweden it would seem all the lawyers, journalist, arts degree and career politicians we stupidly voted in to power have right royally $& up our economies! The biggest killer of the pandemic is starting
More interesting pieces of data ignored by the U.K. Government were that most of the covid infections were contracted after being admitted into hospital for other causes, or they were only discovered by tests when being admitted to hospital [ As they had no symptoms of covid] Then we have the big one, anyone that died within 28 days [ At the being of the pandemic it was 60 days] of being tested positive for Covid, was counted as a covid death even if the person died from some other disease , or a road accident evening falling off a ladder, this in effect belied all the scaremongering about the numbers of deaths and the government's almost forcing every one from one month old to 101 to have a vacination, saying it would prevent infection and transmission which it didn't, so we have governments redefining what a vaccination is, not the one most of us use to know in our childhood.!
Anyway you should be fine in the Bahamas during the Hurricane seasons because accordingly to Sleepy Joe Biden you will be OK in a hurricane if you get vaccinated!
I'm glad you have got rid of the mack mandate [ Would you let a surgeon operate on you with one of those generic masks) as my wife and I are visiting her realatives in Nassau this month:)
tribanon 1 year, 7 months ago
Parents and grandparents of school age children should be up in arms about government's clear intent to one way or another jab their loved ones with these experimental vaccines as demanded by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) controlled WHO and PAHO.
This is the ultimate test of the submissiveness and subservience of the Bahamian people. Our CCP controlled government knows that if mothers, fathers, grandmothers and grandfathers simply standby and allow this unconscionable injustice and harmful act to happen, then they will let anything happen in which case you can kiss our country and its people good-bye.
carltonr61 1 year, 7 months ago
Forced live human experimentation is still liable to hanging under Nuremberg Convention. Freedom of information Act will show the political monetizing and profiteering by governments component with G7 EU dictation on the transsexuality and not private choice, of everyone in order go receive their bailout money. The Bahamas needs a BRICS loan that comes along with keeping Christian morality and 100% cultural sovereignty. Even pepper British pig was ordered include mom and mom and child as normal, likewise fir husband and husband and child. We need Trump back as POTUS.
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