As the country continues to work towards a realization of vaccinating 65 per cent of the population by March 2022, Prime Minister Andrew Holness is imploring Jamaicans to take the COVID-19 vaccines, assuring that the Government has taken the necessary steps to ensure the vaccine’s safety.

Speaking at a Vaccination Mobilisation and Public Education Campaign event in St. Mary, on Thursday (September 30), Holness told citizens that while scepticism is healthy, waiting too long to get vaccinated could be “detrimental to your life”.

While commending persons who have already taken the jab, he urged those who remain undecided “to make a decision; don’t wait too late; find time now”.

“The Government has taken all the precautions to make sure that the vaccines that we are giving to you are safe and that the process of vaccinating you is also safe,” emphasised Holness.

He reiterated that vaccination is the best way to protect the population against the virus, particularly the most vulnerable, and return the country to normality.

Emphasizing the importance of being vaccinated against COVID-19, he noted that the measures implemented to contain the spread of the virus, such as lockdowns and curfews, cannot continue indefinitely, and as such persons will have to take personal responsibility for protecting themselves by getting vaccinated.

“At some point, we have to remove the measures, and it becomes your personal responsibility to wear your masks every day, your responsibility to sanitise, to maintain an awareness of social distance, and to take the vaccines because I can’t keep locking down the country to protect you all the time,” said Holness.

“The (must) burden shifts to the individual.”

He added: “there is no freedom without responsibility”.