COME AND GET IT: Govt opens up vaccine rollout from today for anyone aged 18 or over

A bottle of the AstraZeneca vaccine is displayed in London. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)

As of Monday, April 26, 2021

By RASHAD ROLLE

Tribune Senior Reporter

rrolle@tribunemedia.net

ALL people 18 and older in The Bahamas are eligible, starting today, to receive the COVID-19 vaccine, the National COVID-19 Vaccine Consultative Committee announced yesterday.

Those who have received their first dose, meanwhile, can expect to be alerted via email within the next two weeks about when they should book their second appointment. The issuance of the second doses will begin on Monday, May 10.

To date, 25,692 doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine have been administered on New Providence, Grand Bahama, Eleuthera and Abaco, the government said in a statement.

The vaccines will be rolled out today in Mayaguana, Inagua, Crooked Island, Acklins and Andros; tomorrow in Exuma, Cat Island, San Salvador and the Berry Islands; Wednesday in Long Island and Rum Cay; and Friday in Bimini.

“To make an appointment to receive the COVID-19 vaccine please visit vax.gov.bs. To view the full Family Island schedule, including vaccination site locations and times, visit opm.gov.bs,” the government said.

“On-site appointments are available at the Church of God of Prophecy, East St and St Anselm’s Catholic Church Hall, Bernard Road on New Providence; the Susan J Wallace Community Centre on Grand Bahama and at all Family Island vaccination sites.

“A Bahamas government issued ID is required at check-in at the vaccination site.”

The expansion of vaccine accessibility comes as the country experiences an uptick in COVID-19 cases, and as evidence mounts around the world about the privileges fully vaccinated people will enjoy.

The head of the European Union said yesterday that fully vaccinated American tourists will be able to visit Europe this summer after more than a year in which nonessential travel has been shut down.

Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis announced last week that fully vaccinated people can travel to The Bahamas without a negative COVID-19 RT-PCR test come May 1, while travellers within the country will also be exempt from test requirements when travelling to and from New Providence, Grand Bahama, Abaco, Exuma and Eleuthera.

“Once individuals are fully vaccinated,” he said, “individuals can participate in a closed environment, once all within that closed environment are fully vaccinated. The mask would not be necessary and they can participate within that environment.

“That means indoor dining can resume for those individuals who are completely vaccinated. It also means from a cultural perspective that those like myself who participate in Junkanoo, once we are all vaccinated, we can work within the Junkanoo shacks among us all vaccinated individuals.

“This is important because it allows within an enclosed restaurant or wedding facility, once all are vaccinated, it also means that the cultural events that we had yesterday where individuals in restaurants and weddings would have Junkanoo rushing through the environment, that can occur once all, including the Junkanooers, are vaccinated and therefore we can commence some form of normal life,” Dr Minnis said.

carltonr61 2 years, 11 months ago

He needs to get his normal PM power back for us to be back to normal. These super Fascist dictitorial one man power should he could only look in the mirror and take his mind off vaccines. We are still handcuffed by his mighty power. Any time he wants to tighten our cuffs by shutting down the country or closing food stores to make us starve because he loves us he will.

carltonr61 2 years, 11 months ago

It's all about control. Soon he will read the script Boris Johnson just read trying to explain to the British people how he denied medical advice for another lockdown because of the damage it would do to peoples lives. All the same keeping the cuffs of power on inventing new strains to boogie man scare us to take yet another vaccine to cope with tell thy kingdom comes new strains.

tribanon 2 years, 11 months ago

And pray tell o'mighty power-juiced Minnis, what will you next be doing in your infinite wisdom for the greater good of your plebes in our society? Will you as our authoritarian supreme ruler be announcing that only Bahamians who get vaccinated for the Wuhan virus at least once a year will be allowed to live in certain neighbourhoods? Or perhaps you will announce that only those Bahamians who wear a Red FNM 'T'-shirt at least 4 days a week will be allowed to have a driver's license or ride on a jitney? Maybe you will see fit to formally announce that only Bahamians who do not weigh more than 270 lbs will be allowed to receive medical treatment from our public health system? (God rest the soul of that poor Bimini resident, Louis Edward Rolle).

K4C 2 years, 11 months ago

I am guessing there are about 400K citizens in the Bahamas , to achieve herd immunity, 70% PLUS, that's 280K to 325K of citizens need to be vaccinated, it's time all from the PM down stop BSing Bahamians

DDK 2 years, 11 months ago

Assuming the "vaccinations" are actually effective...

ohdrap4 2 years, 11 months ago

Take away the children, comes to less than 20000. Still way more than the supplies for 60000 they actually have.

tribanon 2 years, 11 months ago

Many, many thousand of Bahamians have already been exposed to the Wuhan virus and developed their own natural immunity to it. This should be a major contributing factor to the development of herd immunity within our society. But governments around the world seem hell-bent on adopting a shot-gun vaccination approach whereby they want everyone to get jabbed a couple of times, even if you've already been infected and fully recovered from the Wuhan virus. They refuse to test for the existence of anti-bodies before giving these jabs. The big question here is why are these governments using a shot-gun approach? Is it because they have dishonestly led us to believe these Wuhan virus vaccines work in the same way as a polio or small pox vaccine?

Many of us suspect sinister deep state actors, and their elitist billionaire friends and evil bio-tech researchers, have commandeered elected officials and globalist bureacrats around the world who now wrongfully seek to take away individual free-will. There is an all out assault on the fundamental right of individuals in democratic societies to determine and decide for themselves what's in the interest of their own personal health and well-being. The ultimate goal seems to be the ability to force us to put in our body whatever they want us to be subjected to by requiring us to get jabbed once or twice annually for the rest of our lives. They seem evilly motivated by population control aimed at reducing the world's current population, or at least stopping its gowth, because they believe this is the only way of keeping our planet green for the people whom they will decide can live on it. And that's truly a most scary thought.

proudloudandfnm 2 years, 11 months ago

How dumb are you? If we have herd immunity how is Nassau seeing 40, 50 cases a day? You obviously have no idea what you're talking about...

tribanon 2 years, 11 months ago

You need to stop all of your misplaced fear mongering. Our health system has not been overwhelmed in a long while with hospitalized Wuhan virus patients on ventilators. That's due in large part to the treatment therapies now known and available, and the sad fact that the virus has already taken its death toll on the weakest among us, i.e. the elderly with pre-existing medical conditions. And putting aside the issue of false positive test results, there's a big difference between testing positive for the Wuhan virus and the unlikely possibility of dying from it. This is clearly evidenced by our country's total death count from the Wuhan virus to date, the rate of which has thankfully continued to slow. Suggest you start looking at the much bigger picture behind all that now going on which seems to be much more sinisterly focused on population control.

proudloudandfnm 2 years, 11 months ago

Just get a life. Only could be a trumpie....

tribanon 2 years, 11 months ago

Oh well...at least I tried. You just lend too much credibility to the old addage: "You can lead a horse to the water trough but you can't make it drink from it." lol

Bobsyeruncle 2 years, 11 months ago

That's due in large part to the treatment therapies now known and available.

And what therapies might that be? Pls don't say Chloroquine, Ivermectin, Remdesivir etc., as you should be the last person who would want to take these given the limited Clinical Trial data and long term effect data for Covid patients

Bobsyeruncle 2 years, 11 months ago

Antibody tests are not always the best indicator. It can take 1-3 weeks after COVID symptoms start for the antibodies to appear in the blood. There is also the question of how long after having COVID is there still sufficient concentration of antibodies to produce a meaningful test response.

Then of course there is the accuracy of the test.

Skip this next bit if Math is not your cup of tea.

I think the best test has 95% sensitivity & specificity. If you use this test on a sample of 1,000 people of which 50 actually have antibodies to the virus, the test will correctly identify 95 percent of the true positives, i.e. 47 individuals (50 x 0.95). When it comes to true negatives, the test will correctly identify 95 percent, or 902 out of 950 individuals (950 x 0.95). The other 48 will get a (false) positive result, even though they do not have antibodies. The total number of positive results will be 95 (47 + 48) out of 1,000. However, since only 47 of those positive results will actually be correct, the probability that you actually have COVID antibodies is only about 50 percent which means you may as well just toss a coin.

tribanon 2 years, 11 months ago

Wow! You mean to tell me they couldn't develop a reliable test for anti-bodies, yet they somehow managed to develop these complex mRNA vaccines at warp speed (for emergency use only with complete legal immunity for the developers) with no likelihood of serious long-term side-effects. I'm simply speechless!

Bobsyeruncle 2 years, 11 months ago

I'm simply speechless!

Now, that truly is THE lie of all lies. lol

tribanon 2 years, 11 months ago

Good one! lol

John 2 years, 11 months ago

‘Once individuals are fully vaccinated,” he said, “individuals can participate in a closed environment, once all within that closed environment are fully vaccinated. The mask would not be necessary and they can participate within that environment.’

. . This is the second idiot that is telling people that once they are fully vaccinated, they will not need a mask to be in a room with other people who are fully vaccinated. For the record, please note (1) Persons who are fully vaccinated can still have the virus. (2) Persons who are fully vaccinated can still transmit the virus. (3). They can also transmit the virus to someone who is fully vaccinated. (4). Persons who are fully vaccinated can also contract the virus. (5) persons who are fully vaccinated can also contract the virus from another person who is fully vaccinated. So the wearing of masks, social distancing, hand washing and sanitizer are still necessary until the virus disappears or a cure is found. And if this is the final wave, this corona can be mostly gone by June. Many countries including THe United States, India, Brazil are starting to see declines in the numbers of new cases again along with fewer hospitalizations.

K4C 2 years, 11 months ago

nice cute and paste

kinda defeats the purpose of REAL comment

John 2 years, 11 months ago

Obviously YOU didn’t READ the comment, obviously!

tetelestai 2 years, 11 months ago

Can't wait to read the comments when Biden stipulates that only fully vaccinated individuals can travel to the USA. Ya'll will be begging for the vaccine. This will be fun!

John 2 years, 11 months ago

The UK has already indicated that Americans who are fully vaccinated can travel to that country with Covid tests. But then there’s the presumption that Corona will be around for a very long time. What if this is the third and final wave?

tetelestai 2 years, 11 months ago

Are you willing to bet your life on this being the "final" wave?

UN 2 years, 11 months ago

India KINDLY helped us out, but to get protection from COVID (it doesn’t discriminate - anyone can get it), you need to present Bahamian ID at the vaccination site meaning we’re excluding certain ppl (Haitians?) = COVID AIN’T GOING NOWHERE (duh)!

It explains why this ‘rich’ Haitian gal has been made to live like a pauper. Bigots.

‘Christian nation’??

Clamshell 2 years, 11 months ago

Of note: Rather than bother to purchase vaccines for its citizens, the Bahamian government quite predictably relied on freebie handouts of vaccines from India — a paltry amount that were administered as “first doses,” with the government idiots believing that enough follow-up vaccines would be delivered, free of charge. Any day now. Maybe. La-di-da.

Result? Far fewer than 10% of Bahamians have received a first dose, India is now suffering a horrendous outbreak of Covid and has suspended all exports of vaccines to other countries. They’re not sending any more, folks.

Has anybody in the government noticed this development? And ... their response?

tribanon 2 years, 11 months ago

And why are we vaccinating the many, many thousands of Bahamians who have no doubt already been allicted with the Wuhan virus and recovered from it? Why aren't Bahamians being tested for anti-bodies their own immune systems may have already naturally developed before health officials waste our very limited supply of vaccine doses on them?

We must keep asking ourselves: Why is a shot-gun approach being adopted whereby persons who have likely already developed a natural immunity to the Wuhan virus are nevertheless still getting vaccinated with these new warp speed developed mRNA vaccines? What the true story behind what's going on here?

newcitizen 2 years, 11 months ago

Why has the government not secured more doses of vaccine? Even with all of the anti vaxers we will still be far short of what is needed to vaccinate the people who want it.

Why has the government not made purchase agreements with any manufacturers? What have they been doing for the last 10 months since vaccines went on sale? The cost of vaccinating the population is less than what we are losing in revenue every day. Every day that the government sits around doing nothing is another day pushing back the proper reopening of the country.

Clamshell 2 years, 11 months ago

Very good points. Why? ‘Cause they thought they’d get an endless vaccine supply free from India. Whoppee! Except ... it ain’t workin’ out that way.

The gov’t will spend endless $$millions to buy a tumble-down resort on New Providence, bailing out its wealthy owners. But defend its own citizens from a deadly disease? Pffftttt.

John 2 years, 11 months ago

Didn’t the government make a $2Million advance payment on vaccines? Is it something to do with the vaccines that are being held in Ohio and Minnesota because the FDA has yet to give approval for their use in the US? Is some of this country’s vaccines caught up in this batch?

tribanon 2 years, 11 months ago

And Minnis claimed the $2 million was paid for 80,000 doses. lol

TalRussell 2 years, 11 months ago

Even the UBP's Sir Stafford never had the bullocks came right out to declare, "Privileges shall only exist certain class amongst the Popoulaces.
How can man's nearing 5-generations anniversary on the other side of the Quasi abolishment British Rule, still get to become even more DNA psychology worst than any historically known UBP-acting..., yes?

Clamshell 2 years, 11 months ago

Are there any Tal-translators on duty? Thanx in advance ...

tribanon 2 years, 11 months ago

Tal's making perfect sense here for those who are willing to keep their eyes wide open.

Clamshell 2 years, 11 months ago

OK ... then tell me in plain English what this means: “... the other side the Quasi abolishment British Rule, still get to become even more DNA psychology worst than any historically known UBP-acting...” Thank you.

Bobsyeruncle 2 years, 11 months ago

Haha, I was wondering the same thing

tribanon 2 years, 11 months ago

u 2 r either 1 & same or both blind. lol

John 2 years, 11 months ago

Both the makers of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines have indicated that booster shots (dose #3) will be needed by already vaccinated persons as early as October this year. This third shot will be necessary to make the vaccines effective against new strains of the virus. Johnson and Johnson and AstraGenica have not yet indicated a need for another shot. J and J has just returned to production as the FDA and the CDC decided the benefits far outweigh the problem (blood clots). The US plans to use J and J to vaccinate the homeless who may not be able to be located for a second dose of the other vaccines and also for people in rural or hard to reach areas.

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