The Barbados public will know tonight whether the vaccination drive and lockdown have worked well enough to allow the economy to reopen after a month long national pause due to a surge in covid-19 cases.

With thousands out of work and the business community and the general population growing impatient over the lockdown, Prime Minister Mottley delivers an address to the nation at 7 30pm.

This morning Ms. Mottley toured one of the key vaccination centres, the Maurice Byer Polyclinic in St. Peter, along with Health Minister Lieutenant Colonel Jeffrey Bostic and other health officials, where she announced the national campaign had reached the milestone of 25,000 people vaccinated.

Meantime, Ms. Mottley disclosed that Barbados has another 20,000 vaccine doses left from the first shipment and another is batch is due soon from the global COVAXX program while additional vaccines will be purchased by the government.

Coordinator of the National Vaccination Initiative, Major David Clarke, says the programme has been going well with 35 hundred vaccinations administered yesterday alone.

He disclosed that vaccination is now by appointment only and a new appointment system is being implemented from next week to speed up the process.