And when we met the minister, he was standing in one of those villages, San Pablo, Orange walk.
But encouragingly he was there to support what by the looks of it was a very successful vaccination drive. Here's what he told us about the inoculation efforts there and how the rest of the population should follow suit.
Hon. Michel Chebat, Minister of Health
"Well as you know we are a national vaccination campaign to get as many of our citizens vaccinated as possible. We've been traveling throughout the country and today we're here in the beautiful village of San Pablo in the Orange Walk district reaching out to the residents here and making sure they have the access to the vaccinations."
"This crowd out here today shows to me that people are listening, people are getting the message people to realize the importance of getting vaccinated. We have over 300 active cases in our country at this time. We've moved from a level one to a level 3 and so we have to continue to warn and to encourage our people to observe the public health measures. Those are critical for us. We have the vaccine on hand and there are countries that do not have access to vaccinations the way you do, and the vaccination guarantees, it's gonna save your life, it's gonna keep you out of the hospital, it's gonna prevent you from having severe symptoms and so we want to open our economy, we want to get our country up and running again. This is the way to do it. Come out and get vaccinated."
And while you heard the Minister say that the COVID vaccine is guaranteed to save your life, the science doesn't agree with him there.
The global medical authorities say that vaccines make you immune, not invincible. The vaccine greatly decreases any likelihood of hospitalization and life threatening Covid symptoms. Anyone with the Oxford Astra-Zeneca has over 90% protection from severe symptoms.
