Health Minister calls for vigilance during christmas season

Minister of Health, Dr. Frank Anthony, M.P, is calling on persons to remain vigilant against COVID-19, as they celebrate the Christmas season.

Dr. Anthony said it is customary for persons to want to socialise with friends and family during the season. He said while the numbers are seeing a downward trend, persons must remain cautious

Minister Anthony said there are still persons not following the COVID-19 protocols, which could result in more positive cases.

“There are still too many persons who are not adhering to these recommendations that we would have put out including, wearing masks and keeping distance and so forth, if you breach those guidelines unfortunately, we are going to see more cases.”

Additionally, the minister said countries that detected the Omicron variant have seen an exponential increase in coronavirus cases, and as such, he is calling on more persons to start practicing the precautionary measures, that way they can celebrate the Christmas season and also be safe from COVID-19.

“Here we have an opportunity right now to make sure we are taking those precautions, and while we go through the holiday season, we need to go through it very safely and if we take those precautions we can do both things, we can celebrate the holidays, and at the same time be safe, but it requires some amount of discipline,” Minister Anthony said. 

Dr. Anthony is again urging persons to get fully inoculated as it is the most effective way of preventing the severe form of the disease and even death.

As of Tuesday, 404, 605 or 78.9 percent of the adult population took the first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine while 284, 174 or 55.4 percent are fully vaccinated. Meanwhile 3, 790 persons, 18 years and older took their booster shot.

For persons within the 12-17 age cohort, 29, 563 or 40.5 percent took the first dose of the US-made Pfizer vaccine while 20, 793 or 28.5 percent are fully vaccinated.