By day's end, 600 more individuals will have joined the Vacci-NATION as GHRA and GVB held their first Official Worksite Vaccine Clinic.

The Guam Hotel and Restaurant Association alongside the Guam Visitors Bureau and the Governor's Re-opening Task Force held their first official Worksite Vaccination Clinic at the Hyatt Regency Guam today, to add their helping hand in the continued efforts to vaccinate half the island, re-open tourism and get the island's largest economic sector back to work.

GHRA president Mary Rhodes told KUAM News, "It's really important that we continue this partnership with Public Health and try to get more worksite vaccines available. Because we think that the level of influence is only greater if you bring it into their microcosms of their communities where they work and they live, primarily, most of the day, with their co-workers. And so, we feel that there's a lot of value in that.

"And so, we hope that with the success of today's clinic, with 600, we hope that we will see an increase in this, come April, as we move closer to the May 1 re-opening that the Governor is planning to have."

After conducting a census of employees wanting to receive the vaccine,  from businesses primarily in the tourism industry, GHRA ran a pilot vaccination clinic to demonstrate proof of concept. And, with the success of the pilot program and a virtual town hall to educate the community, Rhodes says they noticed a pretty dramatic increase in employees interested in the vaccine.

"We've seen in some hotels, an increase in numbers from two hotels in particular, where vaccines amongst the employees were at 35 percent and with workforce vaccination, we've seen it go as high as almost 80 percent," she detailed. "So, we've seen an uptick in the interest in wanting to get vaccinated."

At today's vaccination clinic,  we got a chance to speak with one of the 600 registered vaccine recipients on why they chose to get vaccinated and their experience receiving their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.

The staffer said, "It's like another level of protection for me, especially since I do deal with people all the time. So, I just feel a little more confident to go out to work everyday, with the vaccine. Certainly gives me a peace of mind. I don't have to worry as much and I could try to live my life, just like normal.

"If you can and you're eligible, go do it."

Rhodes says worksite clinics like these will make our Path to Half, even smoother.

"This is just another extension of what Public Health is doing, this is not competing with the UOG vaccine clinic. It's just really identifying several avenues in which we can get more people vaccinated and educated to want to get vaccinated and I think that's the difference we're trying to make in the community, is really to increase that number so we can get that path to half and be ready to re-open tourism," she said.

"The more vaccine clinics we can have on Guam, the better for our community."