Health Minister Dr Frank Anthony on Thursday said that COVID-19 vaccines should be fairly distributed around the world in order for the pandemic to be eradicated even as several promising vaccine candidates which Guyana is slated to access through COVAX are yet to be approved by the World Health Organization (WHO).
Anthony recently revealed that COVAX has secured 2 billion of potential vaccine candidates, which, once approved, will be rolled out in Guyana and other countries during the second quarter of next year.
The WHO disclosed that they had signed an advance purchase agreement with AstraZeneca for 170 million doses of the AstraZeneca/Oxford candidate, and a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Johnson & Johnson for 500 million doses of the Janssen candidate, which is currently being investigated as a single dose vaccine. “These deals are in addition to existing agreements COVAX has with the Serum Institute of India (SII) for 200 million doses – with options for up to 900 million doses more – of either the AstraZeneca/Oxford or Novavax candidates, as well as a statement of intent for 200 million doses of the Sanofi/GSK vaccine candidate,” a WHO report stated.