And if seeing the health minister get his shot doesn't calm your nerves, we also spoke with the manager of the expanded program of immunization, Lilia Middleton. She explained how healthcare workers and those over the age of 60 can get their vaccines and what the process is like when they go in.
Lilia Middleton, Expanded Program of Immunization Manager
"What we're doing right now is we're asking the public to register before they come for their vaccination but we're also welcoming persons who would walk in also. They would come and go at an area where we do a brief education session for them then they go to the triage area where we take their temperature to see if anyone is having a fever or if they're okay. They do a brief questionnaire for them also to check that everything is okay with them and then they would go to the data entry clerks so they can get their name in the Belize health information system. From there then they go to the vaccination site, they get their vaccine then they go and they wait fifteen minutes just in case there's a reaction to the vaccine."
"It takes more or less fifteen minutes for a person to get in the vaccination site but you know there are some little bottlenecks that we're still working on."
"All the districts have started, we were doing the doctors and nurses, those people working in the healthcare system before, and after this week we should complete all the areas with the healthcare workers, whoever hasn't gotten their vaccine as a healthcare worker and would like to come back for it, they are welcomed any time. After the healthcare workers we're working now on the 60+ and so all districts have started on the 60+ for this week."
"We have approximately 60,000 persons in the 60+ range so we need to vaccinate them but remember we only have 25,000 vaccines so whenever that is finished then we'll wait on the COVAX vaccine to arrive."
"They're catered for the ending of march and the first week of April that that vaccine should arrive."
Following the vaccinations of elderly persons, phase two of the rollout program will begin.
