The first shipment of the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine is expected to arrive in the Jamaica tonight.
This is according to a post made on Twitter by Health and Wellness Minister, Dr. Christopher Tufton this morning.
“J&J vaccines arriving tonight. This represent our first significant shipment of a single dose vaccine and the first tranche of almost 1.9M doses of J&J purchased by the Jamaican Government;” Dr. Tufton tweeted.
However, the minister did not specify the number of doses that are expected to be in the shipment.
The Ministry of Health highlighted that as of Wednesday, Jamaicans will now be equipped with three COVID-19 vaccine options when the inoculation process resumes. These brands are AstraZeneca, Pfizer and now the Johnson & Johnson vaccines.
Children 12 years and older are currently being vaccinated with the Pfizer brand of vaccines and the process is expected to continue through to tomorrow.
However, there are reports of challenges or the unavailability of the AstraZeneca vaccines at some sites; Permanent Health Secretary, Dunstan Bryan, sought to explain what resulted in these challenges.
“What I believe the problem on the weekend was, in some of the vaccination sites, elderly persons turn up for their second dose but at those times, AstraZeneca (which is what they would be requiring for their second dose), was not available and what was said to them (in some instances) was that there was no AstraZeneca to give them their second dose at that particular site;” Mr. Bryan explained.
He further underscored that the vaccination sites at schools are specifically arranged for children and will only have the Pfizer vaccines available at those sites.
The Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of health made the disclosure during a radio interview this morning.
Natasha Williams- Mckoy’s Senior Writer.