As a number of vaccines have been given approval for use in various countries, Guyana’s “task force”/ committee responsible for the COVID-19 vaccine is expected to meet this week.
This is according to the Minister of Health, Dr. Frank Anthony who is the chairman of the committee.
Dr. Anthony in relation to the committee’s mandate stated that the almost twenty-person committee will begin working on rollout plans and preparation of vaccination sites.
“Well we will start working on that now and we have at least about I think 20 persons who are on the task force and they come from various backgrounds and skillsets. We want to make sure that we are prepared for the rollout of vaccines so we will be looking at our preparedness, working on a vaccine preparedness plan”, he said.
When asked about Guyana’s specific approval process for a vaccine, the minister stated that the country would go with international regulations.
“Once a vaccine has been approved by the WHO (World Health Organization) then we would accept that approval because it meant that the vaccine would have undergone a rigorous evaluation” he noted.
He mentioned that there are other stringent regulatory authorities in various countries like the United States’ Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia and others that would put products and even vaccines through their paces to ensure that they are safe for human use.
“These countries, if we see products that have been authorized from these countries we generally accept them because they are part of this network of being a stringent regulatory authority”, the minister added.
