(Barbados Today) One of the Eastern Caribbean’s top COVID-19 fighters on Friday has come out against governments introducing mandatory coronavirus vaccinations for the moment.
Dr. Yitades Gebre, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) and World Health Organization (WHO) representative to Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean made the statement to journalists as PAHO launched a communications campaign targeting vaccine hesitancy in the region.
Though Dr. Gebre stressed that such mandatory policies with vaccinations were not currently necessary at this time, he insisted that more citizens should be vaccinated as soon as possible, if any real form of herd immunity to COVID-19 is to be reached in the region.
He explained: “From the WHO point of view and PAHO, we do not envision that countries will implement mandatory vaccinations against COVID-19 at this time, but there are certain situations where a strong recommendation to vaccinations may be issued, for instance for healthcare workers.