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Prime Minister Andrew Holness has accused rich nations of hoarding COVID-19 vaccines, while poorer countries wait to get doses.
Speaking Friday to Bloomberg QuickTake, Mr. Holness said Jamaica might not receive vaccines until around April.
He told the programme's anchor, Tim Stenovec, that rich countries were giving themselves a false sense of security by hoarding the vaccines.
"I think prudent planning would be to ensure that there is a consummate spread of the vaccine right across the world because the world has to reach a certain threshold in vaccination in order for us to defeat the virus. I think it's a false sense of security, unless you intend to close your borders permanently, that would give anyone a thought to believe that if you vaccinate your population alone then you're safe," he asserted.
Jamaica will have access to the drugs through the COVAX Facility, and Mr. Holness said he will get vaccinated as soon as it is available.
Widespread vaccinations are seen as one of the keys to reviving tourism where earnings are down about 70 per cent due to the global pandemic.
Mr. Holness said Jamaica was doing well in its COVID-19 fight, relative to its resources and compared to other countries.
"Today's statistics here revealed that we had less than five per cent positivity rate and our infections were somewhere in the region of 40... so we're doing fairly well," he reported.
Clear problem
The head of the World Health Organization (WHO) has expressed similar concerns to Mr. Holness, saying there is a clear problem that low and middle-income countries are not yet receiving supplies of COVID-19 vaccines.
He is urging countries to stop striking bilateral deals with manufacturers.
WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Ghebreyesus has advised rich countries who have the majority of the supply, not to cut the queue.
He noted that at present, vaccines are being implemented in 42 countries, 36 of which are high income countries while six are middle income countries.
"So there is a clear problem that low and most middle income countries are not receiving the vaccine yet. This is a problem we can and we must solve together through COVAX and the ACT (Access to COVID-19 Tools) Accelerator," he said, arguing that if high and some middle income countries continue to make more bilateral deals, it could push up the price of the vaccines, leaving poorer people unable to have access to them.
The WHO head said hoarding vaccines or "vaccine nationalism" is self-defeating but vaccinating equitably "saves lives, stabilises health systems and would lead to a truly global economic recovery that stimulates job creation."
He added that equitable spread of the vaccine would also limit the opportunity for the virus to mutate.
The scramble for shots has accelerated as governments also struggle to tame more infectious variants identified in Britain and South Africa, which are threatening to overwhelm healthcare systems.
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