 The world over, people are being encouraged to get vaccinated against the coronavirus in order to regain some semblance of normalcy to their lives. But accessing the COVID-19 vaccines remains a challenge for small and developing states like St. Lucia. Prime Minister the Honourable Alan Shasne is among many leaders challenged with the procurement efforts for additional vaccines outside the COVAX facility. He says the difficulties have been compounded by international developments, including new waves of the pandemic. Every time you think that you have a deal, then it changes. So for instance, many times we've had arrangements thinking that we were going to be getting the vaccines. And then all of a sudden you had the significant outbreak in India. And all of a sudden, India needed additional vaccines. You had a fourth wave taking place in Europe. And you found yourself competing against some of those larger countries for those same vaccines. And then you have the other situation where you have some larger countries which are making sure that they vaccinate their population before they export any vaccines. So it is a significant powder. Every day of mine is being spent on trying to procure and secure additional vaccines. I know that that is the critical step for us to turn a major corner in this COVID battle. I certainly want to protect and make sure everybody's protected. So the first responsibility of the state is to make sure that we have access to the vaccines. Thanks to initial donations as well as procurement through the COVAX facility, St. Lucia has enough doses to inoculate 20% of its population. Residents are encouraged to get vaccinated at the earliest from the Department of Health's current stock while the government seeks out additional batches. I think the next couple of weeks will really tell the story in terms of solutions' willingness to take the vaccination. But I'm hoping that just even the recent events where we've seen an uptake, an increase in a number of cases, this fight is not over. And the only way we can fight this battle and win is by people becoming vaccinated. It was very sad, a football team from view 4 that had been practicing for months to be able to go off to the tournament. A day before they were supposed to go, five of the players tested positive and the trip was canceled. So this is the level of investment we're all making and it's being marginalized because of COVID. We still now have to find vaccines for at least another 60% of the population to get to herd immunity. We are seeing the success in Israel by getting herd immunity. Sadly, Seychelles thought they had reached herd immunity and then now there was a significant outbreak and they were at 60% vaccination. So again, the more people that can become vaccinated, the ideal being everybody being vaccinated, then I think that that's the only time that we can assure full protection. Prime Minister Dionabel Alan Chastney.