Last week of Mass Vaccination against COVID-19.

PHILIPSBURG (DCOMM):— The Vaccination Management Team (VMT) encourages everyone who hasn’t been vaccinated to come in this week to one of the administering locations, as it is the last opportunity to come in while the Pfizer vaccine is still available on a walk-in basis.
This week the Belair Community Center will be open from Tuesday to Thursday from 8:30 AM to 4:30 PM.
The Collective Prevention Service (CPS) at the Vineyard Office Park will be open from Tuesday to Friday from 8:30 AM to 12:30 PM and 1:30 PM to 4:00 PM.
The VMT also announces that there will be two final vaccination, POP-UPs, on Friday and Saturday, which will be communicated with the public with respect to the venues and times later this week.
Almost 24.000 persons in Sint Maarten have already received their Pfizer vaccine and are now protected against COVID-19. The Delta variant, which is twice as contagious as the Alpha (British) variant, has also spread to Sint Maarten. As this variant is causing major problems in various countries, it is important to know that the Pfizer vaccine is still 88% effective against this variant. This is also evident because almost all current active cases and hospitalizations are of unvaccinated persons.
Lastly, while being young and healthy significantly reduces the chance of developing severe complications from COVID, it is never guaranteed. There are several examples of professional athletes and young, healthy persons ending up in the hospital.
We also know that 10 to 20% of the persons who had COVID-19 can develop ”long term COVID”, which means that they can have mental health issues, chronic fatigue, lung damage, and the loss of smell and taste for months or years after recovery.
The VMT strongly encourages all persons 12 years and older to come for their COVID-19 vaccination at one of the vaccination administering locations or POP-UPs this week. Only if enough persons get vaccinated do we not have to fear another outbreak and Sint Maarten can return to normalcy, the VMT said on Monday.
Sint Maarten Protected Together.