The government of Antigua and Barbuda considered a range of strategies to speed up COVID-19 vaccinations.
In the end, the country’s Minister of Health, Wellness, and the Environment decided that citizens must be paid to take the vaccine. This government agency has partnered with Epicurean Fine Foods and Pharmacy to provide EC$50 food vouchers to everyone who signs up for the vaccine. The government will pay for the island of Antigua’s largest food market as part of the agreement, which prompts a range of concerns given the country’s low-to-middle-income economy.
According to data from Johns Hopkins University, the pandemic’s primary wave hit this island nation from February to March 2021. Since then, the number of new cases every day has decreased. With a population of 98,731, the nation has just 1,241 issues of COVID-19, with 33 deaths.
Antigua and Barbuda’s economy is highly reliant on tourism (over 50% of GDP), which explains the drive to achieve what’s known as “herd immunity” by vaccination. Attempts to diversify economic activity into transportation and financial services have been made.
Although the Jamaica Observer went on record as saying that the recent announcement was simply an act of “desperation,” the media suggests that some incentive system might function to increase vaccination rates in the Caribbean island nation’s nearly 3 million people.
The Jamaican Observer continued with their very pessimistic view of their people.” However, we agree that incentivizing vaccination is an idea that both the government and the citizens of Jamaica should consider. People have a history of responding to incentives to do even what they should be doing for themselves or their families.”
Actual Vaccination Efforts
According to the most recent results, 31,262 people, or 31.6 percent of the total population, had received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine by May 11. The COVAX Facility, a collaboration between the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), Gavi the Vaccine Alliance, UNICEF, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), and the World Health Organization (WHO), delivered the first 24,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccines to the island nation in just over a month.
The PAHO(Pan American Health Organization) revolving fund, based in the United States, sent 24,000 doses of the AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccine developed by SK Bioscience in South Korea.
