Dedicated Email Address For COVID-19 Vaccine Questions Established
May 11, 2021 — The Ministry of Health and Social Services commenced COVID-19 vaccination on 8 February 2021. Since that time, 1321 persons have received their first dose of the vaccine and 976 persons have received their second dose.
Based on Hospital records, there has been a total of 14 deaths on Montserrat from February 2021 to present. The records also indicate that of the deceased, 2 persons received their first dose of the Oxford- AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine. There was no indication based on investigations carried out by the Ministry that these persons died as a result of any complications related to the COVID-19 vaccine which they received.
The Ministry of Health & Social Services works in conjunction with other stakeholders to investigate all instances of sudden deaths. It can be confirmed that there were two sudden deaths over the past days which are currently under investigation. The Ministry of Health and Social Services asks that the public remains calm while we await the results of the post- mortems. The Ministry is also asking that the general public remains mindful of the feelings of the relatives of the deceased during this very difficult time.
Chief Medical Officer, Dr Sharra Greenaway-Duberry reaffirms that, “The risk of adverse reactions to the Oxford AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine are very minimal. The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunization (JCVI) has calculated the risk of the extremely rare condition of blood clotting to be 10 in a million persons. Therefore, the benefits of vaccination have been proven to far outweigh the risks. The Ministry is continuing its vaccination programme and residents are being encouraged to continue to register.”
In addition to vaccination, Ministry of Health officials are advising residents to continue practicing good hygiene, social distancing and the wearing of face coverings in shared public spaces where social distancing may not be possible.
The Ministry is encouraging persons who may have any queries about the COVID-19 vaccine or wish to receive any additional information, to use this dedicated address covid19vaccine@gov.ms.