Belair Community Center
PHILIPSBURG--The Vaccination Management Team (VMT) encourages everyone who has not been vaccinated to come in this week to one of the administering locations, as it is the last opportunity to come in while the Pfizer vaccine is still available on a walk-in basis.
“This week the Belair Community Center will be open from Tuesday to Thursday from 8:30am to 4:30pm,” the VMT said in a press release on Monday.
The Collective Prevention Service (CPS) at the Vineyard Office Park will be open from Tuesday to Friday from 8:30am to 12:30pm and 1:30pm to 4:00pm.
The VMT also announces that there will be two final vaccination pop-ups on Friday and Saturday, which will be communicated with the public with respect to the venues and times later this week.
According to the release, almost 24,000 persons on St. Maarten have already received their Pfizer vaccine and are now protected against COVID-19. The Delta variant, which is twice as contagious as the Alpha (British) variant, has also spread to St. Maarten. “As this variant is causing major problems in various countries, it is important to know that the Pfizer vaccine is still 88 per cent effective against this variant,” said the VMT. “This is also evident because almost all current active cases and hospitalizations are of unvaccinated persons.”
The VMT said that while being young and healthy significantly reduces the chance of developing severe complications from COVID, it is never guaranteed. There are several examples of professional athletes and young, healthy persons ending up in the hospital.
“We also know that 10 to 20 per cent of the persons who had COVID-19 can develop ‘long term COVID’, which means that they can have mental health issues, chronic fatigue, lung damage, and the loss of smell and taste for months or years after recovery.
The VMT strongly encourages all persons 12 years and older to come for their COVID-19 vaccination at one of the vaccination-administering locations or pop-ups this week. “Only if enough persons get vaccinated, do we not have to fear another outbreak and St. Maarten can return to normalcy. St. Maarten protected together,” said the VMT.
