The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

The Bahamas will likely receive “hundreds of thousands” of COVID-19 vaccine doses this quarter, it was revealed yesterday, amid concerns the nation is near-bottom in the Caribbean in inoculation rates.

Ed Fields, deputy chair for the National COVID-19 Vaccine Consultative Committee, told a Bahamas Hotel and Tourism Association (BHTA) that although he cannot “give any level of guarantee” on quantity or timing it appears that the promised US “grant” of doses will arrive in August.

He spoke after Kerry Fountain, the Out Island Promotion Board’s executive director, revealed data showing that The Bahamas ranks 31st out of 34 Caribbean countries when it comes to the rate at which its population is being vaccinated against COVID-19.

The Bahamas was shown as having fully vaccinated just 15 percent of its population, which was well short of the 75-80 percent threshold viewed as providing “herd immunity”. Only St Vincent & the Grenadines, with 13.65 percent fully vaccinated, Jamaica at sixpercent and Haiti at zero, have more work to do than The Bahamas.

Mr Fountain warned that the data shows The Bahamas is “not putting ourselves at a competitive advantage” against rival tourism destinations when it comes to the industry’s rebound and that of the wider economy. Bonaire and the Cayman Islands lead the way regionally with vaccination rates of around 75 percent.

“For us to surpass 2019 numbers we need to fix this and get our population vaccinated,” Mr Fountain argued during the BHTA meeting. “We as a country know it’s a challenge for all, but to see a full recovery and beat 2019 levels we need to reach herd immunity where 75-80 percent of the adult population is fully vaccinated.”

Emphasising that he was not seeking to criticise the vaccination effort to-date, he also questioned what the distribution plan and schedule is for the Family Islands. Mr Fountain said that too often information on this subject had only been provided one week in advance, and Family Island hotels “need more notice” if they are to help.

Mr Fields, whose presentation came after Mr Fountain’s, agreed that the data showing Caribbean vaccination rates was likely to be largely accurate, although some BHTA meeting attendees suggested that The Bahamas’ fully vaccinated rate was actually ten percent rather than the 15 percent quoted.

The vaccination committee deputy-chair, though, pointed out The Bahamas’ difficulties in sourcing vaccines as a small, independent nation with no ties to a former colonial power. Describing The Bahamas as “a reliant nation”, he added that the committee and the government had been “trying religiously” to obtain the necessary doses since they first became available.

Likening the situation to breaking bread, where the oven was ready and heated up but nothing could be produced because no flour was available, Mr Fields said The Bahamas had put in place everything that was necessary for a COVID vaccination roll-out - including storage, personnel and locations - but could do nothing if the doses were not available because they had been “sucked up” by developed countries.

Revealing that the vaccination committee was working on a strategy to “decentralise” vaccine distribution once supply became available, with Family Island public health clinics set to play a key role, Mr Fields argued that it was presently impossible for private doctors and pharmacies to source COVID-19 doses.

“They couldn’t get those vaccines if they tried,” he explained. “The way it’s happening now is only governments can buy vaccines. We’d love it that some private clinics buy it. They’d have to go through all the protocols required to import them.”

Describing the importation of COVID-19 vaccines as “a very rigid process”, Mr Fields reiterated of private sector involvement: “It isn’t a matter of us not wanting to do that. Right now they probably couldn’t even get it if they tried.”

He added that the Government’s efforts to approach manufacturers as an individual country had made little headway. Johnson & Johnson, Mr Fields said, had replied that it will not send vaccines to countries such as The Bahamas that are members of the COVAX facility and would only deal on an individual nation basis once the pandemic is over. And Moderna will “not get to us until 2022”.

Mr Fields also made an impassioned plea for private doctors to assist in administering COVID vaccines to patients. “One of the interesting dilemmas of this whole pandemic is The Bahamas has a very limited resource pool in terms of vaccinators,” he added.

“Vaccinators are now being used in other areas of our healthcare system because of people being sick. I want to make an appeal to private physicians to come forward and see how they can help in this process or we’ll have another problem. We’ll have supply, we’ll have demand but we won’t have people to administer the vaccine. I want to make an appeal to people to get involved in that regard and help us.”

That issue could arise as early as Monday next week, which is when Mr Fields said 33,000 vaccine doses from COVAX are due to arrive in-country. This shipment will amount to a net 28,000, as 5,000 will have to be shipped to Antigua & Barbuda to make up for the 5,000 it previously provided to The Bahamas.

He added that this third tranche of Astra Zeneca vaccines would enable The Bahamas to re-open more vaccination sites from August 1, increasing the daily doses administered in Nassau and Freeport to 2,000. Presently, vaccinations are restricted to 400 doses per day at Loyola Hall on Gladstone Road due to supply shortages, but this will increase to 600 per day with the new shipment.

Mr Fields said the committee had been carefully managing the vaccine supply to ensure there was sufficient for second doses. Asserting that it was impossible to measure “hesitancy” concerns with present supply levels, he added that vaccine type was critical as the Pfizer brand is the only one approved for inoculating school children aged 12 years and older.

With over 85 percent of persons eligible for a second dose having received this shot, Mr Fields said that while he did not want “to give any level of guarantees” another COVAX shipment containing both Pfizer and Astra Zeneca vaccines was anticipated by The Bahamas.

“Finally, the US grant of vaccines we anticipate that will be some time in August. The numbers will be substantial. Three allocations of hundreds of thousands of vaccines will be available to us over the next quarter,” he added.

Addressing Mr Fountain’s concerns over the availability of information, Mr Fields said the committee did not want to act based on possibilities or maybes. Arguing that securing and importing vaccines was a complex process involving agreements with other states and export/import licences, he pledged that concrete details will be released as soon as they are known.

Acknowledging that the Family Islands are “a huge challenge” for vaccine distribution because of The Bahamas’ geography, Mr Fields said public health clinics will be relied upon to roll-out doses when supply becomes available as opposed to previous “blitzes” of individual islands.

“Every single measure to get the vaccine out to our people is being taken,” he added. “What is not sustainable is for the public sector to be the sole distributor of vaccines. We’ve started the planning process to transfer from central distribution to public sector clinics.”

Mr Fields said some 1,200 persons had so far registered as having received COVID-19 vaccines abroad, with that number growing daily. He also hailed The Bahamas’ electronic vaccination pass plans as “one of the most advanced in the world” using QR codes.