Alverston Bailey, Associate Professor at the School of Public Health at UTech - file photo
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Alverston Bailey, Associate Professor at the School of Public Health at UTech
The government is being urged to require people to present a COVID-19 vaccination card to access key services in the public sector.
The call has come from Alvertson Bailey, Associate Professor of Occupational Health and Safety, who believes the government should take this step to ensure more Jamaicans get vaccinated in order to access services such as courts, churches, hospitals, tax offices, banks, and schools.
Professor Bailey contended that it should now be mandatory for frontline workers to be vaccinated against COVID-19. These workers, he said, should include health care staff, members of the security forces, transportation workers and those in the tourism industry.
Professor Bailey also suggested that persons who are due their second dose of the Pfizer vaccine be given the AstraZeneca brand.
He said this method could have prevented thousand of doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine going to waste, having expired last week.
Professor Bailey noted that mixing the medication has worked in Canada and Europe, so Jamaica could have sought the advice of regional and global health bodies, such as the World Health Organization and Pan American Health Organization on the issue.
He argued that it is "obviously far more prudent to have the shots in arms that in an incinerator," referring to the fact that the expired vaccines had to be destroyed.
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