The Tribune

By LEANDRA ROLLE

Tribune Staff Reporter

lrolle@tribunemedia.net

WITH vaccinations set to begin on Harbour Island today, one community official says they are expecting a good turnout from residents due to the recent uptick of positive cases recorded over the last few weeks.

Lynton Pinder, trainee administrator for Spanish Wells, Harbour Island and North Eleuthera, told The Tribune yesterday that officials are finding that more and more locals are wanting to take the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine following an increase in infections in the community.

The Tribune understands that officials from the Ministry of Health’s surveillance team are currently on the ground conducting an assessment of the contact tracing efforts on Harbour Island.

It is not clear how many positive cases have been recorded for that community to date. However, health officials have expressed concern with the increase in cases on Eleuthera. The island had a total of 189 cases as of Monday.

Speaking on Tuesday, Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis noted that “the vaccination programme will be accelerated to address the increase in cases” on Eleuthera and Grand Bahama.

Vaccination centres in Spanish Wells and South Eleuthera began their vaccinations on Tuesday, while a site in North Eleuthera started operations yesterday.

A vaccination centre identified in Harbour Island will officially open today.

Yesterday, Mr Pinder said the vaccination process in Spanish Wells has been going “smooth” so far. However, he was unable to give official numbers on how many people have been vaccinated so far. According to community officials, Spanish Wells and Harbour Island are estimated to have a combined population of over 3,000 people.

“The process went very smoothly,” Mr Pinder said. “We received a lot of positive feedback particularly on Spanish Wells and in fact, the vaccine rollout is happening at the hall currently.”

Meanwhile, Central and South Eleuthera administrator Margaret Symonette echoed similar comments when contacted by the newspaper yesterday.

Mrs Symonette said she and her husband received their first shot on Monday and added that she feels fine.

“I could speak to the fact that when I went to get a vaccination and we had a lot of the second homeowners present. It is good response and it’s going smoothly,” Mrs Symonette said. “I feel great and I would encourage others to get it.”

Eleuthera is the first Family Island to administer the Oxford-AstraZeneca doses since the country received the shots early last month.

However, the nation’s vaccination programme will expand to several more islands in the days ahead, specifically Abaco and Bimini which are expected to start vaccinations after the Easter holidays.

Yesterday, The Tribune contacted several officials on Abaco to get an update on the preparation efforts, but was told that they were still waiting to receive definitive information from the government’s vaccine committee on the matter.

More than 7,000 vaccine doses have been administered since the programme began on March 14. The highest number of COVID-19 vaccinations administered in one day was more than 1,000.

According to officials, 63 percent of vaccine recipients have been over 60 and 58 percent of recipients have been women.