(By Ernesto Cooke) – Prime Minister Dr Ralph Gonsalves who last Thursday said he was pondering whether to take the Sputnik vaccine, will now do so on Tuesday.
Russia’s Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine gives around 92% protection against Covid-19, late-stage trial results published in The Lancet revealed.
St Vincent and the Grenadines received 20 samples of the Sputnik vaccine last week. Infectious disease specialist Dr Jerrol Thompson and Medical officer of Health Dr Roger Duncan have taken the vaccine.
Gonsalves announced that he would take the vaccine while speaking on WEFM radio Sunday.
Gonsalves speaking in parliament last Thursday told Vincentians why he was pondering whether to take the vaccine.
“ My first instinct was not to take it, because I don’t want it to be said that 20 vaccines came from sputnik and Ralph gone and put himself in the cue”, the PM said last Thursday.
Gonsalves said that he would be considered among the group that should take the vaccine given his age.
“Several journalists told me the feedback they are getting is that persons would only take the vaccine Russian or any other if he Gonsalves gets his shot”, Gonsalves told parliament.
SVG would also receive 45,600 indicative doses of AstraZeneca.
An eighty-eight (88) year old male is the fourth (4th) person to die from COVID-19 in St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
Eight hundred and fifty-six (856) cases remain active, One thousand, two hundred and sixty-nine (1269) cases of COVID-19 have been reported in St. Vincent and the Grenadines since March 2020.
