Nurs­ing as­sis­tant Jenelle Elie hopes to get more nurs­es and mem­bers of the pub­lic to take their COVID-19 vac­cine by ap­peal­ing to them.

Elie, who works at the Princes Town Hos­pi­tal, launched her Covid Buster cam­paign on Sat­ur­day at the Mass Vac­ci­na­tion Site at the Cou­va Cham­ber of Com­merce in Cam­den.

Asked how she plans to en­cour­age oth­ers to take the jab, she said it was im­por­tant to lead by ex­am­ple. "You lead by ex­am­ple and we are show­ing what to do. We are com­ing out to en­cour­age and to ed­u­cate the pub­lic to be a hero them­selves and be a Covid Buster. We are mak­ing a plea to the Prime Min­is­ter and the Min­is­ter of Health that we, the nurs­es, are on the ground. We are the ones who hold the pa­tients' hands and sym­pa­thise with them and ex­plain to them the im­por­tance of the vac­cine and fol­low­ing the safe­ty pro­to­col. Now we are leav­ing the hos­pi­tal walls and out in pub­lic.

The Covid Buster, Jenelle Elie, centre and her team during the launch of her Covid Buster Campaign at the Mass Vaccination Site run by the Couva Chamber of Commerce at Camden, Couva, on Saturday.

SHASTRI BOODAN

"We want to plead with the PM, we want to join hands with you and we want to come on board with the Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion too. We can paci­fy the par­ents and then chil­dren with the anx­i­ety of the vac­cine," Elie said.

Elie said they would be vis­it­ing all Mass Vac­ci­na­tion Sites and of­fer­ing stick­ers as a form of en­cour­age­ment.

Hun­dreds lined up out­side the Cham­ber’s fa­cil­i­ty to get their sec­ond dose of Sinopharm.

Many par­ents said they were in sup­port of their chil­dren get­ting vac­ci­nat­ed.

Ganesh Gopaul, a res­i­dent of Mc Bean, said he has two teenage chil­dren. He said, "I want my chil­dren to be vac­ci­nat­ed, there should not be any re­sis­tance with the vac­cine. Too many peo­ple are be­liev­ing in all sorts of con­spir­a­cy the­o­ries they see on the in­ter­net. Big peo­ple must start think­ing for them­selves and stop let­ting them­selves be in­flu­enced by oth­ers."

Firemen look on as people line up to be vaccinated at the Mass Vaccination Site run by the Couva Chamber of Commerce at Camden, Couva, on Saturday.

SHASTRI BOODAN

Mun­gal Bridge­mo­han, a res­i­dent of Lime Head Road, said every­one should get vac­ci­nat­ed so life can re­turn to some lev­el of nor­mal­cy. "We all want to go to the beach again," Bridge­mo­han said. He wants his three chil­dren to take the vac­cine. "I took the vac­cine and it's safe and I am look­ing for­ward to them tak­ing it too."

Cou­va Cham­ber head Mukesh Ram­s­ingh said around 2,500 peo­ple were ex­pect­ed to get their sec­ond jab of the Sinopharm vac­cine on Sat­ur­day. On Sun­day they will be do­ing the first dose of the As­traZeneca vac­cine.

Richie Sookhai, the head of the Ch­agua­nas Cham­ber of Com­merce, who was at the Cou­va site as a vol­un­teer, said vac­ci­na­tion was the on­ly way the econ­o­my can once again open up. Sookhai said he was pleased that the re­tail sec­tor will be re­open­ing on Mon­day.

He said the eco­nom­ic ac­tiv­i­ty should al­so put some mon­ey in­to the hands of land­lords who have to face the brunt of bills with­out any cash com­ing in. Sookhai said a large num­ber of non-na­tion­als were tak­ing the vac­cines, which he said gave them a com­pet­i­tive edge in the job mar­ket.

Over 26,000 peo­ple have al­so been vac­ci­nat­ed at the Ato Boldon Sta­di­um where the Mass Vac­ci­na­tion Site is be­ing run by Pro­man. Fazad Mo­hammed, head of cor­po­rate com­mu­ni­ca­tions at Pro­man, said more peo­ple are show­ing up for the As­traZeneca Vac­cine. He said there has al­so been a large turnout for the sec­ond dose of the Sinopharm.