Loop- Prime Minister Dr. Timothy Harris has renewed calls for members of the public service who aren’t yet vaccinated, to get the jab as soon as possible.

Speaking during Tuesday’s edition of Leadership Matters, he said: “We urge every employee of the government, especially our crossing guards, police officers, defence force officers, teachers, nurses and doctors to get vaccinated. The security and safety of our country depend on you being vaccinated.”

PM Harris was full of praise for the 26, 000 adults who have already gotten their first dose of the vaccine, but also urged parents to have their children vaccinated before the end of the school term.

St Kitts and Nevis’ vaccination roll-out has been amended to target children. Officials say this is one step being taken to prevent the possible disruption of learning due to the pandemic.

“Each of us should encourage everyone 12 years and older to get vaccinated for their own protection and for the protection of all in the country,” the Prime Minister said.

“We are in this together. None of us is safe until all of us are safe. I invite every teacher, teaching assistant, everyone in our school compounds to get vaccinated. We should avoid the spread of COVID-19 in our schools and the disruption of teaching and learning in our educational institutions. The best way to do this is by vaccination.”

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently authorized the emergency use of the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine for the prevention of COVID-19 to include children five through 11 years old.

The authorization was based on the FDA’s thorough and transparent evaluation of the data that included input from independent advisory committee experts who overwhelmingly voted in favor of making the vaccine available to children in this age group.

According to a report issued by the Ministry of Health on Wednesday, 10 new cases of COVID-19 were recorded in the Federation in the last 24 hours.

That brings the total number of confirmed cases to 2696, 120 of which are still active.