COVID-19 VACCINE WILL PROVIDE COVERAGE FOR 20 PERCENT OF THE NATIONAL POPULATION IN FIRST INSTANCE

Basseterre, St. Kitts, February 12, 2021 (SKNIS): St. Kitts & Nevis’ Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Hazel Laws, said that the procurement in the first instance of 21, 600 doses of the COVID-19 Vaccine, will provide coverage for 20 percent of the national population.
 
She said this during the National Emergency Operations Center (NEOC) COVID-19 Press Briefing on February 10. “The doses are the product of AstraZeneca and Oxford University vaccines,” she said.  
 
“The start date for delivery can be as early as mid to late February, however, there were some conditions where the specific date of delivery would be dependent on the WHO Emergency Use List Approval Process and some other steps which include our own implementation of our vaccination plan and our regulatory preparedness,” said Dr. Laws.
 
“It specified that about 25 – 35% of the amount will be supplied in the first quarter and about 65-75% in the second quarter,” she said.  
 
“The data from the clinical trials suggest that it offers a 62 percent efficacy, but the clinical trials have since found that the vaccine had an efficacy of about 82 percent when two doses were given 12 weeks apart,” said Dr. Laws.