Published 28 October 2021
Basseterre
Buckie Got It, St.Kitts and Nevis News Source
ST KITTS AND NEVIS IS FIRST TO ACHIEVE WHO COVID-19 VACCINATION BENCHMARK IN THE CARIBBEAN SUB-REGION
Basseterre, St. Kitts, October 28, 2021 (SKNIS): St. Kitts and Nevis has reaffirmed its standing as a leader in the global community by being the first independent territory in the Caribbean sub-region to achieve the World Health Organization’s (WHO) benchmark of having at least 40 percent of all countries’ populations vaccinated against COVID-19 by the end of 2021.
Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Hazel Laws, highlighted this development at the October 27 COVID-19 Briefing by the National Emergency Operations Centre (NEOC). She presented statistics from the October 26 Vaccination Report that showed that 72.1 percent of the adult population and 8.2 percent of the target population of children between 12 to 17 years are fully vaccinated against the deadly COVID-19 virus.
In real terms, 22,227 persons were fully vaccinated as of Tuesday, October 26. Using figures from the last census, this represents 51.3 percent of the population. Dr. Laws indicated that the 40 percent benchmark set by the WHO, was achieved around late August or early September.
“The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) will be acknowledging the Federation’s achievement by publishing an article on the Federation’s strong leadership in the vaccine roll out … and this article will have a global reach,” CMO Laws stated.
St. Kitts and Nevis began its Roll Up 2 Roll Out vaccination campaign on February 22, 2021. Two COVID-19 vaccines are currently being administered to individuals who volunteer to get vaccinated. These are the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine and the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.
