Ministry of Health Working to Secure Children’s Jabs

The vaccination rates seem to have hit a plateau. Only forty-nine percent of the Belizean population has received their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine even though the Ministry of Health has been aiming for seventy percent. Reaching this goal has been a challenge.  Many are not going to health centers to get their second dose or booster shots. Some have not gotten vaccinated at all. As the Ministry of Health moves to propose ending the curfew, Minister of Health and Wellness, Kevin Bernard, says his Ministry will spend even more energy getting Belizeans vaccinated. And, he says they are pulling out all the stops to secure the vaccine for children eleven and under.

Kevin Bernard

Kevin Bernard, Minister of Health & Wellness

“Three hundred and twelve Belizeans died because of COVID, but they died without having the choice of having a vaccine. That is important to point out. We have in country over two hundred and ninety thousand vaccines available and yet we are only a little under forty-nine percent of Belizeans with their first dose. We need to turn things around and I am encouraging our Belizean people out there, let us get vaccinated. Now, when you talk about the forty odd percent, you are talking about the entire population. That takes into account the five and eleven year old and the under five, which cannot be vaccinated. We don’t have the vaccine for them as yet. We are working on getting those in. So, the next step for our ministry is to access those pediatric vaccines and then start a very aggressive campaign to get those age groups vaccinated. If we are able to do this and set a target that by the end of July August, and hopefully we can get these vaccines pretty soon, we are hoping we can get these vaccines in country within two months if possible. We are working very hard. The vaccine team is working very hard through the Ministry of Foreign Affair. They have been dealing with bilateral arrangements to try and get these vaccines. If we should get these vaccines in country, I would love to see the Belizean people put the serious effort in getting these young population vaccinated. That will take us to the target we wanted.”