Co-coordinator of the National COVID-19 Vaccination Campaign, Major David Clarke of the Barbados Defence Force, provided some details of the vaccination programme to be rolled out in the country over the coming weeks.
Speaking during a press conference this evening at Ilaro Court, Major Clarke said that the vaccination programme would be carried out “via the excellent public health system we have”.
“We have nine polyclinics … in Barbados, and we’ll be rolling out the programme piggy backing on those polyclinics. So, we will have a number of teams operating out of those polyclinics.
“Every polyclinic has a Senior Health Sister who manages the system. And what we have done is we have capacity built that so that we can have vaccination teams at the polyclinic. We can have satellite teams; we can have mobile teams; we can have drive-through teams, and we will have a static team. And it’s going to be very much based on where the population is based,” he disclosed.
The Co-coordinator of the National COVID-19 Vaccination Campaign gave an outline of how the process would work, noting that each team would comprise nine persons and would be managed by a Public Health Sister.
“We may have two sisters in the team, and a staff nurse or a nursing assistant. We will then also have a medical doctor, who is there to make sure that you’re educated on the process, and also to manage you because after you receive your vaccine, there’s a mandatory 15-minute period in which you have to wait, and you have to be observed. And so, each team has to have a full medical team with an emergency tray and oxygen, and a medical doctor. We will also have, of course, a general worker because we have to be sanitising after every individual has been vaccinated. And of course, somebody to manage the flow of patients coming in, as well as a person to sanitise you at the beginning,” he stated.
Major Clarke detailed the procedure for administering the vaccine, which would initially be given to all frontline workers.
“The process starts with you being sanitised to enter, becoming registered. So, we have a medical records person; a file is opened; you then go to get your vaccination and finally when that is done your information is entered into the Shape app.”
He added that the app would be managed by University of West Indies students, who would send the information by email, which would include when the second dose is to be administered.
A vaccination card is issued when the process is completed. He said the new system had been tested, and all staff trained in an effort to spread the vaccine to shore up the population.