In a race against further vaccine waste, Prime Minister Andrew Holness says the Government of Jamaica has raised its vaccination target and is hoping to deliver one million COVID-19 jabs by the end of November.

According to the prime minister, the Government will be redoubling its efforts to get Jamaicans vaccinated starting with a new campaign to ensure the one million vaccination goal is reached.

Speaking on Thursday (October 7) of the one million goal, Holness stated: “(It) is not impossible and it is not necessarily a difficult task… .”

He noted that in order to achieve the goal, greater focus is required and, as such, “the Government will be redoubling its efforts right throughout the country”.

Holness made the declaration while conversing with citizens at the Mocho Health Centre in Clarendon, one of several stops on his vaccine mobilisation and public-education campaign tour.

The new target comes as the Government seeks to utilise some 369,080 AstraZeneca vaccine doses set to expire between October and November of this year.

Just last Thursday (September 30), health personnel were forced to dispose of almost 60,000 expired doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine.

On the matter of the expired vaccine disposal, Holness stated: “I was not satisfied that we had to destroy 60,000 vaccines. I am not here casting blame, but I am saying that all persons should look into themselves, including those who didn’t take the vaccine, and reflect upon that, and say Jamaica’s reputation internationally could have been impacted by this and our ability to come out of the pandemic in quick fashion could also have been impacted.”

To date, Jamaica has inoculated, with at least one dose, only 10 per cent of the country’s total population.

As a result, Chief Medical Officer Dr Jacqueline Bisasor-McKenzie has advised that the country is not yet at a point where its vaccination rates have any impact on COVID-19 transmission.