A TV debate involving medics for and against the Covid-19 vaccine should be held, the Deputy Speaker of the House has said.

Derrick Burgess added: “I really would like to hear from a panel of doctors supporting the shot, and hear about other forms of treatment.

“We should have that on TV.”

He was speaking during the motion to adjourn at last Friday’s House of Assembly session.

Mr Burgess appealed to the public, whether vaccinated or not, to stick to social-distancing rules and to “wear those masks”.

But he insisted that any move to mandatory inoculation would be “dictatorial” and “divide the country more than it has been divided”.

Mr Burgess highlighted that vaccination was not a 100 per cent guarantee against coronavirus infection.

He added fears over possible side effects had made some people reluctant to get the jabs.

Mr Burgess told MPs: “Health officials are only addressing one side of the situation, as if everybody must get a shot.”

He said that the country needed to hear about other options for treatment.