The Tribune

By LEANDRA ROLLE

Tribune Staff Reporter

lrolle@tribunemedia.net

GOVERNOR General Sir Cornelius A Smith received his first dose of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine at Loyola Hall yesterday, joining dozens of other people who have been inoculated.

“I feel very fine. I didn’t even realise the needle went there,” Sir Cornelius told reporters after getting his shot.

Asked if he recommended that others also take the vaccine, he replied: “Absolutely.”

His wife, Lady Clara Smith, was also vaccinated yesterday.

Their vaccinations came following a power outage at the facility, which resulted in a late start into yesterday’s exercise.

Minutes after the outage occurred, the facility’s back-up generator kicked in – allowing for operations there to begin.

One official told reporters at the time they expected that power would be restored at the vaccination site “ very shortly”.

He also said that the facility could have operated for about 30 minutes without having power.

The country officially rolled out its vaccination campaign against COVID-19 on Wednesday, when more than 60 healthcare workers and senior executives from the Public Hospitals Authority were inoculated.

Ruth Bastian, a public health nurse since 1975, was the first person in the country to receive the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine during a pilot phase conducted at Loyola Hall on Sunday.

Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis, Health Minister Renward Wells and other officials, were also among the nation’s first to receive the injections during that pilot phase.

The shots are a part of the 20,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine donated by the Indian government last week.

The country is expected to receive an additional 33,600 COVID-19 vaccine doses before the end of March through the World Health Organisation’s COVAX facility.

A further shipment of approximately 66,000 vaccines is expected to arrive by the end of May.