The Tribune

By EARYEL BOWLEG

Tribune Staff Reporter

ebowleg@tribunemedia.net

AFTER trying for the last three weeks to get vaccinated, 66-year-old Stephen Plakaris came to the Church of God of Prophecy on East Street hoping to get the shot.

Mr Plakaris was waiting on the line with many other senior citizens at the church yesterday morning. He was frustrated with the wait time, saying senior citizens should be “treated a little bit better” than “standing in the sun for hours” waiting to get vaccinated.

While in the queue, he explained he decided to come to the church after previous failed attempts to get vaccinated. He was having issues getting an appointment online.

“From before the Easter I’ve been trying. I should say some place between mid-March. I went to the Loyola Hall when it first opened up during the second week and I was told not to be on (the) line. I did that at least four tries – I just got tired,” he said.

“We’re encouraged to come out and to register and register online in which the procedure was followed but…especially when you try to put in the date, (it) kept getting blocked out. All that information accepted but then errors kept popping up and therefore the only other choice is this one - walk-in.”

While at the church, data consultant at Ministry of Health Danny Davis, who is also working along with the COVID-19 vaccination committee, admitted it has been busy and they are trying to accommodate individuals who are unable to make an appointment on their phones or computer.

“This site (at the church), you can walk-in, not have a phone, and we can still facilitate you. You can walk in and not have an email address and we can still be able facilitate you that’s why this site was designed the way it is,” he said.

“We’re endeavoured to bring this process to the people wherever they are.

“So, we will have sites in the community and those sites will move through community so that everybody has an equal chance of getting the vaccine.”

Solomon Taylor, 73, who also came to be vaccinated yesterday, also had issues with waiting in the sun.

“(They) should have places where people could be out the sun or could sit down until somebody time,” he said.

“It’s serious, we’re senior citizens were not juniors. People who could stay in the sun for the next 20 years. We have some people who pressure high… the more the sun hit them the more it build up their pressure and they fall out, then what you say.”

Meanwhile, acting Controller of Road Traffic and Chief Superintendent of Police Bradley Sands got vaccinated yesterday. When asked how officers feel about the vaccine, he admitted a lot of them are still on the fence.

“I have no major hiccups with it,” he said “If you really pay attention to what’s happening around the world you would prefer to have a vaccine than to need it and you don’t have it then to have it and you don’t need it because it’s like having an umbrella.

“If the rain coming down the umbrella will cover you, but if you don’t have the umbrella then you get wet up all day.”