Health and Wellness Minister Dr Christopher Tufton says that as more Jamaicans get fully vaccinated against the COVID-19 virus, more of the current restrictions to slow the spread of the virus locally may be relaxed as has been proposed in the United States.

“The more you achieve persons getting vaccinated is the less the risk [of COVID-19 contraction] will be because that is the most effective defence as of now. Therefore, you will see the elimination and relaxation of measures,” Tufton said yesterday while providing an update on Jamaica’s current vaccination plan.

“We do not anticipate that we are going to be living in this environment forever. The idea is to manage the risk, overcome the risk, and hopefully, over time – and given all the measures, to include the vaccines – eliminate the risk,” Tufton added. “We need to reach herd immunity, and we need to vaccinate 1.9 million of our population in an ideal scenario.”

Tufton’s comments followed a revelation from Dr Jacquiline Bisasor-McKenzie, the chief medical officer in the Ministry of Health and Wellness, that approximately 93 per cent of Jamaica’s targeted population for COVID-19 inoculation has not taken up the vaccine.

MORE