“What I would also like to see is that this will not just be a government programme, but the private sector, our doctors are allowed to source and to bring vaccines on the ground,” he said on Tuesday’s January 14, 2021, Honestly Speaking on ZBVI 780AM.

The commentator said that regardless of the maker of the vaccines, it would be beneficial if local private doctors are allowed to import vaccines alongside government-sponsored jabs as an alternative.

“I see no reason why doctors, persons in the medical private field, cannot source [COVID-19 vaccines] and if people want to use the insurance or pay privately for that vaccine, I think they ought to be able to do so and it not just be a government-mandated apparatus.”

The United Kingdom (UK) Government will donate and deliver 8,000 doses of AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine to the Virgin Islands next month, the Governor's Office announced via a press release on January 12, 2021.

8000K AstraZeneca coming to VI - Governor

The comment comes following news that the United Kingdom (UK) Government will donate and deliver 8,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccine developed by Oxford University and AstraZeneca to the Virgin Islands next month.

“If these private doctors and industry has the capacity and the reach, the tentacles in which to procure additional vaccines, I see no reason why they should not be allowed to do so and so that this country can be inoculated,” he said.

Skelton-Cline said the ultimate goal is that the VI would be able to function with some greater level of normality as it relates to COVID-19, given more citizens would get vaccinated.