Seventy-five (75) people currently in prison serving sentences will be receiving the Johnson & Johnson Janssen (J&J) Covid vaccine, according to BPS Director Ismael Aguon when reached for confirmation.
“75 inmates and their personal information have been taken and submitted to the Ministry of Health EOC for vaccine scheduling,” stated Aguon.
Gaafar Uherbelau EOC Deputy Incident confirmed, saying that the inmates were included for the vaccination rollout but had to wait for CDC’s recommendation on the use of the J&J vaccine. “Now that it’s been cleared for use again, we’ll be scheduling vaccination for them.”
There is no discrimination in the rollout of the COVID vaccine in Palau, said Mr. Uherbelau.
He asserted that inmates are people too and need to be vaccinated. Moreover, police officers and medical personnel dealing with inmates are exposed to them, which increases the need for vaccinations throughout Palau’s prison system.
US CDC guidelines for vaccination of incarcerated persons in detention facilities recommend that they be vaccinated at same time as staff “because of their shared increased risk of disease.”
Palau front-liners which include the people in law enforcement were on the first priority list of people to get vaccinated when Palau first began receiving vaccines under Operation Warp Speed.
75 inmates to be vaccinated
