 Hello and welcome to COVID Facts in 5, your comprehensive look at Saint Lucia's management and mitigation of the novel coronavirus. I'm Humedy Mark. Our frontline workers have dedicated this past year to keeping all of us safe from COVID-19 in addition to maintaining regular healthcare. They are true heroes. They are also among the first to be vaccinated given the high-risk work environment. Inspector Fernando James of the Saint Lucia Fire Service has already received his first dose. He tells us about the experience. For this, the motivation for taking this vaccine has been free-fold. As a concerned citizen and also as a family member, I would not want to be bringing this disease home to my family, friends, colleagues, neighbours because of course my profession deals with emergency medical services. And also I would want to make sure that I can be part and parcel of the team in developing herd immunity within the island so as to mitigate or reduce the spread of disease. So again, with the government of Saint Lucia and also the people of Saint Lucia, of course, our very own Department of Health, all the work that the government has been doing and also the Ministry of Health and other associated agencies like the Fire Service, law enforcement and other departments, I believe that with all the work that they have done have given me the ease but motivation and assurity that all what they have done have given me that confidence that I should take the vaccine. The vaccines and the vaccination process, there is always the possibility of an allergic reaction and there wasn't any with me. Of course, there would be side effects, mild side effects, but I did not experience any. I have taken the vaccines in the past because of the nature of my job. I've taken a couple, maybe about four or five before this one. So there was no hesitancy or fear of doing it and I had no side effects. My daughter told me, hey, Fernando, you missed the virus, the COVID-19 will be afraid of you because there are so many vaccines within your system. So I had no fear in taking it and had no side effects. People love St. Lucia. We are dealing with a deadly infectious and contagious virus. We need to fight this virus because this virus is fighting us and one of the ways, apart from the infection protection and of course control measures of washing hands, social distancing, wearing a mask, we also need to take this vaccine. The vaccine that's available for us in St. Lucia is the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine and this is the only way, in addition to the infection protection and control measures, to mitigate the spread of the virus, to keeping people safe, to reduce or limit hospitalizations and of course deaths. I'd like to thank God for being alive. Also, I'd love to thank the Government of St. Lucia for all the work that they have done and all the associated agencies, especially the Ministry of Health and of course the Fire Department, Australia and the Royal St. Lucia Police Force and also for the many St. Lucians who are on the battlefield fighting the spread of this disease, preventing the spread of this disease actually by following the protocols that have been set forth. Thank you, Inspector James for sharing. Remember, the common possible side effects of vaccination are slight pain, swelling and redness at the injection site, fever, feeling of an ease, feeling sick, which can be managed with painkillers. This sometimes will resolve in one to two days. Please also contact your nearest health centre or doctor. Join us next time for another Covid Facts in 5. I'm Humedy Mark.