Shortly after 3pm, health officials, including Health and Wellness Minister Dr Michael Darville, gathered on the tarmac at LPIA to receive the doses of the vaccine, which were acquired through PAHO’s revolving fund.

“We would like to thank the Pan American Health Organization, our partners, to ensure we have the monkeypox vaccine in the country.

“The vaccine will be moved from here to the proper storage site and our teams will be responsible to administer to the high risk groups and individuals that may have been exposed,” Dr Darville said.

“The official roll out will begin very shortly. We have a strategy on how it’s going to be utilized and we would notify the media exactly how we would roll it out. We have our vaccination consultative committee, which also will play an intricate role, along with our team.

When asked if there will be another batch of the monkeypox vaccine doses in the future, Dr Darvile said, “We are back in negotiations with PAHO and that possibility exists. That final decision will have to be made along with our entire team. But we are definitely looking at the second batch.”

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