SHAS­TRI BOODAN

Hun­dreds of young peo­ple start­ed lin­ing up out­side the mass vac­ci­na­tion site at Ato Boldon Sta­di­um in Cou­va from as ear­ly as 6:30 am to get their Pfiz­er vac­cine against COVID-19. 

Fazad Mo­hammed, head of Cor­po­rate Com­mu­ni­ca­tions at Pro­man, the cor­po­rate en­ti­ty run­ning the Mass Vac­ci­na­tion Site, said vac­ci­na­tion of young peo­ple would con­tin­ue at the site un­til next week, based on the sup­plies re­leased from the Min­istry of Health.

De­spite the long lines of ve­hi­cles at the site, Com­man­der Garvin Heer­ah said every­thing was un­der con­trol

"We have a large turnout, a lot of stu­dents with their par­ents are com­ing through, but it is be­ing man­aged and man­aged quite well with this sys­tem we have here. We have so far aimed at vac­ci­nat­ing 1,000 peo­ple, but we may do more than that," he told Guardian Me­dia.

De­spite the heavy rains, young peo­ple said they were ex­cit­ed to get the jab.  Many said they want to re­turn to the class­room en­vi­ron­ment and not­ed that on­line class­es are not as ben­e­fi­cial as go­ing to school. 

Kalisa Ram­sub­agh, 17, who at­tends the Na­pari­ma Girls High School, was ac­com­pa­nied by her fa­ther PC Ram­sub­agh for the jab. Kalisa said she want­ed the vac­cine.

"You could be at risk to oth­er peo­ple who are vac­ci­nat­ed and to those who are more at risk to chron­ic dis­eases, etc. Most peo­ple in hos­pi­tals are un­vac­ci­nat­ed," she said.

She said un­vac­ci­nat­ed per­sons who con­tract the virus would on­ly take up space in the hos­pi­tal that is ur­gent­ly need­ed by per­sons seek­ing treat­ment for can­cer and oth­er chron­ic dis­eases.

"Be­ing un­vac­ci­nat­ed you could al­so risk the virus be­ing repli­cat­ed to dif­fer­ent vari­ants which we do not want, be­cause we all want to go back to nor­mal," she not­ed.

Kalisa said her par­ents and friends share the same view.

Ja­son David took his daugh­ter, Jay­cia David, to the mass vac­ci­na­tion fa­cil­i­ty.

The el­der David said: "I am hap­py that she is get­ting the vac­cine. It al­lows me to be sure that she is safe, and I am safe, and she could get back out to school." 

Af­ter get­ting the jab, Jay­cia said the shot was not painful: "It was like an ants bite."

Bal Ra­goonath al­so took his daugh­ter Am­ri­ta Ra­goonath,12, to get the jab.  Bal, a res­i­dent of Williamsville, said he as­sured his daugh­ter the vac­cine was safe.

Am­ri­ta said she was ea­ger to get her SEA re­sults and get back in a class­room.