Now Health Minister, Dr. Christopher Tufton also spoke about the missing vial today. His tone was
however notably different from that of the Prime Minister on the gravity of the missing vial
the audit is taking place and the audit will determine the extent of the
the breach if if there was an if there was a breach or what actually happened once you
determine what happened it will determine how to proceed what i will say though nearly 1700
valves are accounted for one is missing so we have we have a lot of successes there
and i think sometimes we are judged against perfection and the truth is none of us are
perfect so you'll always have issues what we do is try to correct them as we go along and i think the
health team in the field have done very well in the first week of administering the back seats
meanwhile the health minister this afternoon received
the first dose of the astrazeneca covet 19 vaccine and urged other jamaicans to get inoculated
dr toften says he expects public confidence will build around taking the vaccine after
more political representatives get immunized anthony logg tells us more
friday march 19 2021 2 30 p.m at the spanish town hospital in saint catherine the date time and
location health minister dr christopher toughton received his first dose of the covet 19 vaccine
there have been much debate over when this would have happened but the wait is over this is my
time and i look forward to working on the front line with the nurses and the doctors and others
to ensure that all jamaicans get an opportunity to take the vaccine leading public health experts
argued that it was crucial for the two political figures leading jamaica's pandemic response
take the vaccine to boost public confidence amid concerns in parts of europe so after being
inoculated journalists asked dr toughton whether he believes his action would change the public's
perception about the vaccine i'm not going to to assess my own influence because i don't think that
is for me to do but i do believe that as part of the leadership of the country and the primary the
standard beer for public health um it's important that we demonstrate our commitment to the process
that we're asking the country to buy into we have expressed it verbally uh we didn't express to a
process and we have lived through to that process and i think we are now at the point where persons
like myself other members of parliament and eventually the executive arm will take the vaccine
the vaccination schedule was brought into question recently after the government announced that more
than 5 000 government officials were to be among the first group of jamaicans to receive vaccines
but after public concerns the government changed the order delaying the job for some senior state
officials allowing only those 60 years and older some have argued that the younger politicians
should wait until april before being vaccinated i don't think that um that argument is is an
argument that i necessarily support i believe that as leaders we should provide leadership and
in providing leadership it is as much as what we see as much as what we do but having expressed a
process based on vulnerabilities it there is some validity in saying for younger people you can wait
a little while longer and for the older people you should get get get some preference or priority
uh or should i say the more vulnerable people so frontline workers are clearly vulnerable
overseas and so on but the truth is mostly all elected officials go out into the field
every day and provide leadership on the ground so we're all exposed so as the government ramp
up its effort in the fight against covet 19 health minister dr christopher toughton remains hopeful