Roughly 260 Virgin Islanders Received Vaccine Shots Last Week, Dept. of Health Says, Among Them Governor Bryan and Health Commissioner Encarnacion

  • Staff Consortium
  • December 22, 2020
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Governor Bryan gets vaccinated By. GOVERNMENT HOUSE

About 260 Virgin Islanders received Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine shots last week, according to the Dept. of Health. Among them was Governor Albert Bryan, who during his Monday press briefing encouraged Virgin Islanders to get vaccinated.

“The three of us received our vaccines at thew Charles Harwood Clinic on Saturday morning,” said the governor, referring to himself, Dept. of Health Commissioner Justa Encarnacion, and Dept. of Human Services Commissioner Kimberley Causey-Gomez. “I know that a lot of you in the community have some level of anxiety around the safety of this vaccine, and so we wanted to lead by example and personally validate the safety of the Pfizer vaccine.” 

The territory received 975 doses of the Pfizer vaccine two weeks ago, and doses of the Moderna vaccine arrived in the territory this week, Mr. Bryan said, though the amount was not revealed.

On Sunday, a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention panel recommended that people age 75 and older, an age group the virus has devastated be next in line for Covid-19 vaccination. The recommendation also includes teachers, firefighters, police officers and grocery store workers, among others deemed essential to a functioning economy and are most exposed to the virus.

The federal advisory panel also recommended a third group that would follow right after. This group would prioritize persons age 16 and older with a medical condition that makes them vulnerable to the virus, persons between 65-74, and people in the transportation, logistics, water and wastewater, and food service industry.

Mr. Bryan said his experience with the vaccine was par for the course, stating he had no real side effects from the shot, and that he would receive his second dose  in January. “I truly believe that the availability of this vaccine coupled with increased testing and other federal resources will help us get out from under this pandemic,” Mr. Bryan said.

 

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