NASSAU, BAHAMAS — Prime Minister Philip “Brave” Davis said the COVID-19 mask mandate will be eliminated when more Bahamians get vaccinated.
He was speaking to reporters yesterday after the first doses of paediatric COVID-19 vaccines arrived in the country.
“The pandemic, COVID, the virus is still with us,” he said.
“We’re still wearing our masks and we are attempting to reach a point where we can rid ourselves of some of the tools that stops infection.
“One of the ways of doing that is ensuring that as many of our people get vaccinated and we are hoping to be able to do that…form the cradle to just before the grave. In this instance we now have paediatric vaccines which we were able to access by our relationships we have developed over the past several months and children are now being vaccinated.”
Davis said: “Children contract the virus, they get very sick when they do and the vaccine prevents serious illness and death and so we encouraging all parents to seek to have their children vaccinated.
“Being vaccinated also allows us to open up the economy more, give us more freedom. As I was told just a while ago, we’re tired of wearing masks.
“Yes we know that you’re tired wearing masks but if you get more of your friends vaccinated, your family members get vaccinated, once we reach at a certain percentage of our population being vaccinated there is a scientific methodology to say that it is safe now to be maskless and we want to reach that threshold before we lift the ban of masks totally and in all cases. Right now the mask regulations are such so as to ensure that we protect lives.”
As of July 16, 169,375 people have been fully vaccinated.
Some studies recommend that the mask mandate end only after 70 percent of a country has been vaccinated. The World Health Organisation has set a goal of vaccinating 70 percent of each country’s population.
Asked if he hopes the the mask mandate will be lifted this year, Davis laughed and said: “I hope to do so next week. If you could assist us by getting another 20,000 persons vaccinated by next week, we’d like to have it off by next week.”
