Unvaccinated elderly people at high-risk against COVID in St Kitts & Nevis: CMO Dr Laws

Basseterre: COVID-19 pandemic still poses a high risk to the elderly people around the age of 60, especially those who are unvaccinated against the deadly viral infection, the Chief Medical Officer of St Kitts and Nevis, Dr Hazel Laws, stated while focusing on the importance of vaccination.

On February 16, 2022, CMO of St Kitts and Nevis, Dr Laws, addressed the NEOC press briefing and cited that most of the deaths due to the novel coronavirus have been accounted for by the elderly people when the fourth wave of infection hit the Federation.

She underscored, "The elderly people around the age of 60 are more vulnerable to the COVID-19 infection if they are unvaccinated. The chance of hospitalization and death surged among non-immunized elderly people, significantly, when they have been suffering from the diseases such as diabetes, hypertension, kidney or renal disease, heart disease, and more severe cancer".

"People who are suffering from the diseases and are unvaccinated have highly vulnerable to the COVD-19 infection and increase death rate in the country. We are making efforts to combat the fatalities in the country", Dr Laws noted.

Speaking on the dissemination of misformation on the social media regarding the vaccine, Dr Laws underlined that there had been great hesitancy among the population of St Kitts and Nevis, but the health ministry has ramped up the awareness campaign in the country and boosted the trust among the people of the country. She then urged that vaccination is the only solution to get protected from the viral infection, so it is important that St Kitts and Nevis become 100 percent vaccinated.

She further compared the data on the administration of vaccination and underscored that more than 100 billion people had been vaccinated against the novel coronavirus across the globe, while in the Caribbean alone, more than twenty-four million vaccine doses have been administered.

"In St Kitts and Nevis, over fifty-seven thousand doses of the vaccine have been administered to the citizens, which have secured the country", mentioned Dr Laws.