CAMILLE McEACH­NIE

Not all per­son­nel in close con­tact with 62-year-old Pres­i­dent Paula-Mae Weekes and her moth­er, 92-year-old Phyl­lis Weekes, are vac­ci­nat­ed.

This is ac­cord­ing to the Pres­i­dent's Com­mu­ni­ca­tions Ad­vis­er, Cheryl Lala.

Speak­ing with Guardian Me­dia af­ter it was re­port­ed the Pres­i­dent asked for un­vac­ci­nat­ed per­son­nel to be ros­tered out of her house­hold, and Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley said he too took a sim­i­lar stance, Lala not­ed there is a need to clear some mis­con­cep­tions.

"There are sev­er­al peo­ple on the Pres­i­dent's close pro­tec­tion de­tail who have had COVID, and as such, are in­el­i­gi­ble for the vac­cine at the mo­ment. No one has asked that they be ro­tat­ed out and re­placed with vac­ci­nat­ed per­son­nel," Lala told Guardian Me­dia on Ju­ly 22.

She added: "Even if the of­fi­cers re­ceived the first dose of vac­cine, they re­mained as part of the Pres­i­dent's se­cu­ri­ty de­tail."

She said when the de­ci­sion was tak­en that peo­ple in close con­tact with the Pres­i­dent had to be vac­ci­nat­ed, arrange­ments were made to vac­ci­nate those in­ter­est­ed in do­ing so.

"Those peo­ple who aren't vac­ci­nat­ed and who don't want to be vac­ci­nat­ed...were asked to be ro­tat­ed back to what­ev­er job they used to do be­fore they came to the of­fice of the Pres­i­dent," Lala al­so said.

"The de­ci­sion was tak­en not just to pro­tect the Pres­i­dent and her moth­er, but staff as well." Lala said.

The Pres­i­dent and her moth­er re­ceived their first and sec­ond dos­es of the As­traZeneca COVID vac­cine on April 6 and June 7, re­spec­tive­ly.

In Sep­tem­ber 2020, COVID-19 touched Pres­i­dent's House as her then aide-de-camp and oth­ers, test­ed pos­i­tive for the dis­ease.