Attendees of a recent town-hall meeting on the vaccination plans.
ST. EUSTATIUS--The Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport VWS in the Netherlands will send 1,600 Moderna vaccines to St. Eustatius. The vaccines are expected to be delivered on Monday, February 15. The COVID-19 vaccination campaign in Statia starts on Monday, February 22.
The VWS Ministry took this decision last Wednesday, February 3. “We are very pleased with the first delivery of 1,600 vaccines. This is good news, as it means we can have a large number of residents vaccinated at once,” said Government Commissioner in St. Eustatius Marnix van Rij.
The new information is contrary to what was communicated last week indicating that there would not be enough vaccines to vaccinate the entire population in Statia at once, due to shortage in the Netherlands.
“We are happy that Bonaire, St. Eustatius and Saba will get priority treatment. The Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport has offered the island of Statia the Moderna vaccine for the whole adult population. We really want to make use of this excellent opportunity and urge the Statia residents to register for their vaccination,” said Van Rij.
During the period of one week the first doses of the Moderna vaccine will be given to residents who have registered to be vaccinated. The second dose will be given four weeks later.
To provide the community of Statia with information about the COVID-19 vaccine, the Public Health Department invited associate professors Rachel Robson and Keri Csencsits Smith of Saba University School of Medicine for a town hall meeting which was held at the Lions’ Den on Saturday. More informative sessions will follow during the course of this month.
