Minors 12-17 Lagging Behind in Vaccinations
Dr. Musa said that some two hundred thousand Belizeans have been fully vaccinated, but that the persons with the lowest turnout right now are minors.
Dr. Melissa Diaz-Musa
Dr. Melissa Diaz-Musa, Deputy Manager, Central Health Region
“When we look at the targeted population, which is the population from twelve and above, you know that that number then goes up to sixty-five percent. So when we look at Belize City, in Belize District, we can improve definitely on the twelve to seventeen vaccines. We have approximately fifteen thousand children in that age range and we’ve only done about six thousand fully vaccinated, so that age range we can definitely improve. When we look at people in the work places, the majority of persons are fully vaccinated in work places, especially in the tourism sector and the ministries we see a lot of success in those areas when it comes to being fully vaccinated.”
Marion Ali
“And the elderly?”
Dr. Melissa Diaz-Musa
“The elderly, yes. We have a large amount of the elderly fully vaccinated countrywide. I think we have twenty-five thousand persons over sixty and a high percentage of that are fully vaccinated. We’re calling the elderly to come and get their boosters done, especially because they were in phase one when we started to roll out vaccines, so it’s not the time for them to get their booster.”
Marion Ali
“Dr can you speak to us on the matter of the age range from five to twelve – the children and as far as getting that vaccine here?”
Dr Melissa Diaz-Musa
“Yes, well the Ministry of Health and Wellness, we are trying to procure some of those vaccines here, however these are not readily available. It’s only made by Pfizer – the company – and we have joined with CARICOM in order for us to try to procure some of the vaccines. Many Caribbean countries have also joined in and submitted the amount that they wanted so we’re doing it as a region.”
Belize has not gotten a response yet as to when we will be able to get those vaccines for younger children.
