 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. As you know, Saint Lucia is among countries using the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine. So what does the vaccine actually do? The AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine protects people against the virus by stimulating the body's natural defense, that is, the body's immune system. It causes the body to produce antibodies against the virus, thus offering protection. This will help to protect you against COVID-19 in the future. Heirsner's Techlosure Baptist, Immunization Manager in the Ministry of Health, to tell us more about the process of registering for the COVID-19 vaccine and the three phases of rollout. The national COVID-19 vaccine program has been rolled out in a phased approach to ensure equity, making sure that persons most in need of the vaccine receives it. The first phase focuses on persons of greatest risk of COVID-19, protecting those with greatest vulnerability, and likely to have more adverse outcomes if infected by the virus. Heirs first responders, such as firemen, policemen, persons living with chronic non-communicable diseases, and the elderly population, whether at home or in institutional care, will be vaccinated. This accounts for about 20% of the population. The second phase will include medium-risk response personnel, caregivers, and the persons with non-communicable diseases. And in the third phase of the rollout, the focus will be on vaccinating persons at lowest risk, non-essential workers, and the rest of the population. The AstraZeneca vaccine, which has been offered to the St. Lucia population, has been approved for use by the World Health Organization, meaning that this vaccine has gone through rigorous trials and has gone through all the phases and have made the criteria, meaning that it is safe, it has proven to be effective, and it is of good quality. Thanks, Newshire Baptist. Join us next time for another episode of COVID Facts in 5. I'm Humedy Mark.