Frustration reign at Old Harbour vaccination site

Things did not get going until about 1:00 pm Old Harbour News understands, three hours after the announced start.

This was due to the late arrival of a resident doctor. Aside from the late arrival of a general practitioner, no further explanation was given.

Kerian Morant was among those who vented their frustration at the process.

"I have been here from 9:30 this morning and the doctor didn't come until one o'clock," Morant, a primary school teacher, told Old Harbour News.

She said many persons left out of frustration.

“I was there sitting down for quite some time and I said to one of the nurses, the one in the brown uniform ‘What is happening?’ And she said to me they are calling the doctor and they can’t get her. And we were sitting there for so long and they didn’t say anything to us like ‘the doctor would be late’,” said popular Old Harbour nail technician Untipy Fogah who informed she finally got her jab minutes after two o’clock having arrived at the centre at 9:00 am.

“I got my vaccine but the experience was awful, really awful,” she added. “It was so awful and they’re not organised and they are not professional.”

The Old Harbour location is one of several vaccination sites across the island, as the government intensifies its inoculation programme in its fight against the coronavirus pandemic linked to the death of approximately 1,200 Jamaicans on the island.

But the frustration many experienced today could dissuade others from turning up this Thursday when the process resumes.

The vaccination centre opens from 10:00 am to 3:00 pm.

The Government of Jamaica is seeking to inoculate hundreds of thousands of its people after receiving 300,000 doses of AstraZeneca vaccines from the UK government. Six percent of the population – about 178,000 - has received at least one dose of the vaccine, while just over 122,000 have been fully vaccinated according to official data.

An official in the Ministry of Health who was unaware of the situation at Old Harbour, said they could not comment on the matter but stated that as a policy a doctor is assigned to all vaccination sites in case of an emergency.

Apart from the late arrival of the doctor, Morant said grouping those who registered online and persons who walk-in added to the confusion.

The educator said she did not apply online but contends both groups should be separated.

"Everybody was bundled at the door. Those who had tickets and those who applied online," she said.

"But apart from the jumbling at the door, those who got their numbers and came they register quickly and they had sufficient nurses to carry out the process."

The rationale behind hosting these vaccination exercises once or twice per week is being question by Fogah.

“When I see inside and when I look outside, there is big crowd and everybody is close to each other,” she said. “They need to be on time they need to start on time, there need to be more than one doctor for such a large crowd.”

Meantime the huge turnout strongly suggests a lot of Jamaicans are willing to take the jab despite many persons being hesitant or fully against taking the covid vaccine which has been approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for emergency use only.

In a release this evening the Ministry of Health and Wellness, said it has extended opening hours at the National Arena, the largest vaccination site, to facilitate more persons willing to take the jab.

At the same time the ministry is reminding persons to observe the protocols to control the spread “from washing hands frequently or using hand sanitizer to wearing masks and keeping a physical distance of six feet from others”.

But by the looks of how things went at the Old Harbour site today, it is easier said than done.