The Ministry of Health and Human Services on Tuesday confirmed that as of May 9 2021, a total of 19,515 persons in the TCI have now received their 1st dose of the Pfizer BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine.
This represents roughly 56% of the adult population. The ministry says that it marks a tremendous milestone for the ongoing vaccination campaign which commenced in January of this year. Additionally, significant to note is that 42% of the adult population or 14803 persons are now fully vaccinated having received both doses of the vaccine.
Commenting on the government’s achievements, Deputy Premier and Minister of Health and Human Services, the Honourable Erwin Saunders, congratulated his team within the Ministry of Health on getting the 28-day positivity rate down below 3%. He said that this was an amazing achievement and milestone.
The minister noted that combined with achieving 56% uptake of the vaccine, 42% being fully vaccinated, and the increased vaccination rate, would allow the TCI to get a 4th batch of the vaccine.
Honourable Saunders went on to say that with the support of the public, the government was looking forward to building on these achievements so that the TCI can begin to return to normal.
The number of active COVID-19 cases locally peaked to over 600 in February and has consistently declined since then, including the number of COVID-19 related admissions to the hospital.
The TCI’s 28 positivity rate is now 2.7%, when considering PCR tests only; and it is 2.3% when considering both PCR and antigen tests. This is the lowest positivity rate the TCI has recorded for a 28-day period since early December.
The ministry says that the numbers give supportive evidence of the effectiveness of the vaccination campaign considering the country has remained open since July 2020.
Health officials have also stated that in order to build on this progress as well as the continued reopening of the TCIs economy, continued support of the ongoing COVID-19 vaccination campaign is needed.
As such, the ministry is encouraging unvaccinated persons to strongly consider taking the COVID-19 vaccine. Studies have shown that the vaccine on offer in the TCI, the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine, is 95% effective and is safe.
Persons are encouraged to contact their health care provider for vaccination appointments; but they can also access the vaccine through community events held by the Primary Health Care Department which is available at no cost to all residents.
