(By Ernesto Cooke) – On vaccine hesitancy in St Vincent and the Grenadines, Deputy Prime Minister Montgomery Daniel said the Ministry of Health would be involved in a new vaccine reintroduction campaign.
Daniel said the ministry feels there must be new outreach programs to assist in the uptake.
“They have offered to the cabinet an incentivizing programme, where a lottery can be established, and that can be done in two phases. One when the first thirty thousand persons have been vaccinated, they can benefit. Two, when the full fifty thousand persons are vaccinated, the second lottery can be drawn”.
“They are looking at where phone cards can be given to vaccinated individuals, and where services from both private and public sector entities can be offered as well.”
“If an individual is fully vaccinated, whenever you turn up for a service at any entity, let’s say, for instance, at a supermarket, you can have that arrangement where a discount can be given to you on items being purchased.”
“These are just some of the new initiatives that the Ministry of Health have recommended, and with all of this, the cabinet would have pondered on these and would have by and large accepted the recommendations coming forward.”
Several countries have introduced new initiatives to their population where there is a low vaccine uptake.
As of May 26th, over 19,000 doses of vaccines have been administered in St Vincent and the Grenadines.
