Starting today vaccination teams in Honiara will be going out to Honiara communities to administer the COVID-19 vaccines.

The Minister of Health and Medical services, Dr. Culwick Togamana, says the decision to go out to communities is to reduce people gathering at vaccination sites, which could further hamper efforts to curb the transmission of the virus in the city.

He is now calling on all those eligible for the jab to get vaccinated once vaccination teams come to their communities.

“I therefore call on every person 18 years and above, pregnant women and children 12 to below 18 years of age to get vaccinated,” Dr Culwick said.

He admits that more needs to be done to get vaccination numbers up, but hopes that this new approach will help boost numbers.

WHO and other leading health agencies have stated that to fight new strains such as Omicron countries need to have at least 70% of their eligible population vaccinated.

According to government sources less than 20% of the eligible population are vaccinated.